In yet another violation of UN bans, North Korea on Monday revealed its plans to launch a rocket carrying its second military spy satellite by early next week, drawing quick, strong rebukes from neighbors South Korea and Japan.
The notification of the planned launch, banned under United Nations resolutions, came as leaders of South Korea, Japan and China gathered in Seoul for their first trilateral meeting on Monday, AP reported.
Japan’s Coast Guard said it was notified by North Korea about its planned launch of a “satellite rocket”, with safety cautioned in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and China and east of the Philippine island of Luzon beginning on Monday and running through midnight June 3.
North Korea gives Japan its launch information because Japan’s coast guard coordinates and distributes maritime safety information in East Asia.
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Reacting to the launch notification, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed officials to cooperate with the US, South Korea and other countries to strongly request North Korea not to go ahead with the launch and to take the utmost measures in case of any contingency, his office said, AP reported.
The launch plan likely refers to the North’s push to launch its second military spy satellite into space. South Korea’s military said on Friday it detected signs of suspected preparations to launch a spy satellite at North Korea’s main Tongchangri launch facility in the northwest.
The United Nations (UN) has banned North Korea from conducting any satellite launches, viewing them as covers for testing its long-range missile technology.
North Korea has steadfastly maintained it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles. It says spy satellites would allow it to better monitor the United States and South Korea’s moves and enhance the precision-strike capability of its nuclear-capable missiles.
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“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 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.”’
Kishida said he strongly urged North Korea to cancel the launch plan. China is a North Korean ally, and Li didn’t mention the North Korean launch plan.
In November 2023, North Korea sent its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit as part of its efforts to build a space-based surveillance network to cope with what it calls increasing US-led military threats. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later told a year-end governing party meeting that the country would launch three additional military spy satellites in 2024.
Furthermore, the latest launch notification to Japan identifies the same danger zones for potential rocket debris as those identified prior to North Korea’s last launch.
Since 2022, North Korea has been engaged in a provocative run of missile tests to modernize and expand its weapons arsenals, prompting the US, South Korea and Japan to strengthen their security partnership in response. Experts say North Korea likely believes an enlarged weapons arsenals would increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the US.
On Sunday, North Korean Vice Defence Minister Kim Kang Il threatened to take unspecified “offensive action” in response to what he described as South Korean Navy and Coast Guard ships violating the rivals’ disputed western sea boundary, which has been the scene of several bloody maritime skirmishes in recent years.
He also vowed to retaliate against South Korean activists flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border, AP reported.