TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) – Japan put its ballistic missile defenses on alert on Monday and warned it would shoot down any projectile threatening its territory after North Korea notified Japan of a satellite launch between May 31 and June 11.
North Korea says it has completed its first military spy satellite and leader Kim Jong Un has approved final preparations for the launch.
Analysts say the satellite is part of a surveillance technology programme, which includes drones, and aims to improve the nuclear-armed North’s ability to strike targets in the event of war.
“We will take destructive measures against ballistic missiles and other missiles that have been confirmed to have landed on our territory,” the Japanese Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said it would use a Standard-3 (SM-3) missile or a Patriot PAC-3 missile to destroy a North Korean missile.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that any North Korean missile launch would be a serious violation of UN Security Council resolutions condemning its nuclear and missile activity.
“We strongly urge North Korea to refrain from the launch,” his office said in a Twitter post, adding that it would cooperate with its ally the United States, South Korea and other countries, and do everything possible to collect and analyze information from any launch. .
South Korea has joined Japan in calling on North Korea to cancel its planned satellite launch.
“We urge North Korea to withdraw its illegal plan to launch it immediately. If North Korea goes ahead, it will pay the price and suffer,” a South Korean foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
Isolated North Korea has conducted a series of missile launches and weapons tests in recent months, including a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea’s state news agency KCNA reported that in May its leader, Kim, inspected a military satellite facility.
North Korea has attempted several times to launch “earth observation” satellites, two of which appear to have successfully been put into orbit, the last one in 2016.
In April, Japan sent a destroyer carrying SM-3 interceptor missiles to the East China Sea that can hit targets in space, and PAC-3 ground missiles, designed to hit warheads closer to the ground, were sent to the Okinawa Islands.
A Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said that Japan expects North Korea to launch the missile carrying its satellite over the southwestern island chain as it did in 2016.
“The government is aware that there is a possibility that the satellite may pass through our country’s territory,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a regular briefing after North Korea informed the Japanese Coast Guard of the planned launch.
North Korea’s state media has criticized plans by its foes, South Korea, the United States and Japan, to share real-time data on their missile launches, describing the three as discussing “vicious measures” to closer military cooperation.
Additional reporting by Hyunsoo Yim in Seoul, Nobuhiro Kubo, Elaine Lies, Satoshi Sugiyama and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Jo Min Park in Seoul and David Dolan in Tokyo; Edited by Robert Purcell
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