North Korea announced an imminent launch of a spy satellite nearly three months after a failed first attempt, drawing condemnation from Japan and South Korea and calls for its cancellation.
The launch is scheduled between August 24 and 31, the authorities of the communist country indicated to the Japanese coast guard services, which mobilized its fleet and its air defense system as a precaution in case the device falls on its territory.
South Korea said the launch would be “an illegal act” for violating UN sanctions that ban Pyongyang from developing ballistic missiles, which share technology with space shuttles.
“North Korea’s so-called ‘satellite launch’ is a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” the South Korean Unification Ministry said in a statement.
“No matter what excuses North Korea tries to come up with, it cannot justify this illegal act,” he added.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged Pyongyang to suspend its plans and urged his ministers to “take all possible measures to prepare for unforeseen eventualities.”
The United States for its part urged North Korea to refrain from “carrying out further illegal activities” and to engage in “serious and sustained diplomacy,” a State Department spokesman said.
Japan’s coast guard said North Korean authorities detailed three potential danger areas: the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the eastern coast of the Philippine island of Luzon.
In May, North Korea attempted to launch what it described as its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit, but the rocket carrying it fell into the sea minutes after liftoff.
Pyongyang explained that it had developed the spy satellite as a necessary counterbalance to the growing US military presence in the region.
The new release coincides with major joint US and South Korean military exercises, which began on Monday and are due to end on August 31.
The official North Korean press agency KCNA warned that these maneuvers amount to a “nuclear provocation” that can unleash “a thermonuclear war.”
“Pyongyang appears to be synchronizing its upcoming satellite launch with the Ulchi ‘Freedom Shield’ joint exercises, having improved and supplemented the technical aspects of the launch in the past three months,” Choi Gi-il, a professor, told AFP. national security at Sangji University.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has listed the development of military satellites as a priority on his agenda.
South Korean intelligence services reported last week that Pyongyang could try to launch this satellite between the end of August and the beginning of September.
The fall of the first satellite into the sea in May triggered a lengthy operation by Seoul to recover the remains of the device for analysis.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense indicated in a study carried out by local and US experts that the satellite had no military utility.