Fears of another North Korea military spy satellite grow with new Japan warning
Pyongyang, North Korea - North Korea has notified Japan of plans to launch a satellite by June 4, Japanese media reported Monday citing the coast guard, after Seoul said Pyongyang was preparing to put another military spy satellite into orbit.
![A man at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, watches a television screen showing footage of a North Korean satellite-carrying rocket launch.](https://media.tag24.de/951x634/1/3/13wyxik17t7j8ej1j8kyndsque9ph32p.jpg)
The Japanese Coast Guard said the eight-day launch window began at midnight Sunday into Monday, with North Korea's notice designating three maritime danger zones near the Korean peninsula and the Philippines island of Luzon where the satellite-carrying rocket's debris might fall, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Officials from the US, Japan, and South Korea agreed in a phone call to urge Kim Jong Un's regime to suspend the plan, as any launch using ballistic missile technology would violate UN resolutions, Kyodo reported.
Nuclear-armed North Korea launched its first reconnaissance satellite last November in a move that drew international condemnation, with the US calling it a "brazen violation" of UN sanctions.
Experts say that spy satellites could improve Pyongyang's intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly over fierce rival South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict.
South Korea and US "closely monitoring" suspected satellite preparations
![From l. to r.: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang attend a trilateral summit in Seoul.](https://media.tag24.de/951x634/k/m/kms7xbc463ut73uyt5u9ljxalj93iax9.jpg)
Seoul said on Friday that South Korean and US intelligence authorities were "closely monitoring and tracking" presumed preparations for the launch of another military reconnaissance satellite.
The suspected preparations were detected in North Korea's Tongchang-ri county, Seoul said, which is home to the isolated country's Sohae Satellite Launching Ground. It was also where the North staged three satellite launches last year, with only the final one being successful.
Seoul has said the North received technical help from Russia for that satellite launch, in return for sending Moscow weapons for use in the war in Ukraine.
The warning from the North comes as Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo's top leaders meet in South Korea on Monday for their first summit in nearly five years, though differing political stances mean North Korea is not expected to be on the table.
Cover photo: Jung Yeon-je / AFP