North Korea told Japan that it was going to launch a satellite by June 4 as Chinese Premier Li Qiang met leaders of Japan and South Korea in a trilateral meeting in Seoul.
On Monday Japanese media, while citing the country’s coastguard, reported on the development as South Korea said that the North was preparing to put another military spy satellite into orbit.
The Japanese coastguard said, ‘The eight-day launch window started at midnight on Sunday into Monday’.
North Korea’s notice has designated three maritime danger zones near the Korean peninsula and the Philippine island of Luzon where the satellite-carrying rocket’s debris might fall, as per the media reports.
According to the media reports the officials from Washington, Tokyo and Seoul agreed in a phone call to urge Pyongyang to suspend the plan.
The three sides cited United Nations resolutions that would be violated if Pyongyang used ballistic missile technology which it often does. In November 2023, Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea launched its first reconnaissance satellite.
The United States had denounced it as a brazen violation of the UN sanctions. Experts cited by the Japanese media point out that these spy satellites are meant to improve Pyongyang’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, over South Korea in the event of a potential military conflict.
Last week Seoul said that South Korean and United States intelligence authorities were closely monitoring and tracking presumed preparations for the launch of another military reconnaissance satellite.
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