Seoul, South Korea — North Korea has announced plans to launch a rocket apparently carrying its second military spy satellite for an eight-day period starting Monday, drawing swift and strong rebukes from neighbors South Korea and Japan.
The notification of the planned launch, banned by UN resolutions, comes as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Seoul for their first trilateral meeting in more than four years.
The Japanese Coast Guard said it was informed by North Korea about the 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, starting Monday and lasting until June 3 at midnight.
North Korea provides Japan with its launch information because the Japanese coast guard coordinates and distributes maritime security information in East Asia.
North Korea’s planned launch would be an attempt to put its second military spy satellite into orbit. South Korea’s military said Friday it had detected signs of suspicious preparations for the launch of a spy satellite from North Korea’s main launch facility at Tongchangri in the northwest.
The UN bans North Korea from any satellite launches, viewing them as a cover to test long-range missile technology. North Korea has always maintained that it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles. It says the spy satellites will allow it to better monitor the movements of the United States and South Korea and improve 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 UN Security Council resolutions and undermine the peace and security of the region and the world,” Yoon told the meeting with Kishida and Li begins. “If North Korea continues its launch despite the international warning, I think the international community must deal with it harshly.”
Kishida said he strongly urged North Korea to cancel the launch. China is an ally of North Korea and Li did not mention the North Korean satellite.
In telephone interviews earlier Monday, senior diplomats from Japan, South Korea and the United States agreed to call on North Korea to abandon the launch. South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which deals with North Korea, separately called the North’s satellite launch “a provocation that seriously threatens our security and that of the region.”
Later Monday, South Korea mobilized 20 warplanes for an exercise intended to demonstrate its determination to punish North Korea if provoked, according to the South Korean military. Japanese officials said their missile interceptors remained ready to shoot down any debris from a North Korean rocket if it fell on Japanese territory.
Last November, North Korea put its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit as part of efforts to build a space-based surveillance network to address what it calls growing U.S.-led military threats. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later told a ruling party meeting that the country would launch three more military spy satellites in 2024.
The ability of North Korean satellites to produce militarily significant imagery is widely doubted, but some civilian experts say operating multiple satellites could help North Korea continuously monitor large enemy targets.
The latest launch notification to Japan identifies the same dangerous areas for possible rocket debris as those identified before North Korea’s latest launch. This suggests that North Korea would use the same first and second rocket stages as before, said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at the Seoul-based Korea National Strategy Research Institute.
Chang said launching three satellites this year would allow North Korea to more frequently obtain images of sites in South Korea, Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific.
Since 2022, North Korea has engaged in a series of provocative missile tests to modernize and expand its weapons arsenal, prompting the United States, South Korea and Japan to strengthen their security partnership by answer. Experts say North Korea likely believes an expanded weapons arsenal would increase its influence in future diplomacy with the United States.
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