North Korea announced plans to launch a rocket apparently carrying its second military spy satellite during an eight-day period starting Monday, drawing quick, strong rebukes from neighbors South Korea and Japan.
The notification of the planned launch, banned under U.N. resolutions, came as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Seoul for their first trilateral meeting in more than four years.
Japan’s coast guard said it was notified by North Korea about its planned launch of a “satellite rocket,” with a warning of caution in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and China and east of the main Philippine island of Luzon beginning Monday through midnight June 3.
North Korea provides Japan with its launch information because Japan’s coast guard coordinates and distributes maritime safety information in East Asia.
North Korea’s planned launch is thought to be an attempt to put its second military spy satellite into orbit. South Korea’s military said Friday it detected signs of suspected preparations to launch a spy satellite at North Korea’s main Tongchangri launch facility in the northwest.
The U.N. bans North Korea from conducting any satellite launches, viewing them as covers for testing long-range missile technology. North Korea has steadfastly maintained it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles. It says spy satellites will allow it to better monitor the U.S. and South Korea’s moves and enhance the precision strike capability of its nuclear-capable missiles.
“Any launch (by North Korea) using ballistic missile technology would directly violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and undermine peace and security of the region and the world,” Yoon said at the start of the meeting with Kishida and Li. “If North Korea presses ahead with its launch despite the international warning, I think the international community must sternly deal with it.”