TOKYO (AP) — North Korea told neighboring Japan that it will make a third attempt to launch a military spy satellite in the coming days, Japanese officials said Tuesday, after the two previous launches failed.
Japan’s coast guard said North Korea notified Tokyo of its plan to launch the satellite sometime between Wednesday and Nov. 30.
The notice identified three maritime zones where debris from the rocket carrying the satellite may fall. Two are in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and China and the third in the Philippine Sea, Japanese coastguard spokesperson Kazuo Ogawa said.
Ogawa said the areas are the same as North Korea identified for its earlier satellite launches in May and August, implying the third attempt would have a similar flight path. North Korea gives Japan the launch information because Japan's coast guard coordinates and distributes maritime safety information in East Asia.
The North's notification came a day after rival South Korea warned it to cancel its launch plans or face consequences. South Korea's military suggested Seoul would suspend a 2018 inter-Korean agreement to reduce tensions and resume front-line aerial surveillance and live-firing drills in response to a North Korean satellite launch.
U.N. Security Council resolutions ban any satellite launches by North Korea because they are seen as a cover for testing its missile technology. North Korea says it needs a space-based surveillance system to better monitor its rivals, but South Korea says the North's launches are also designed to enhance its long-range missile program.
Since last year, North Korea has carried out about 100 missile tests as part of its efforts to modernize its arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons targeting the United States and its allies. Many foreign experts say the North still has the few remaining technological hurdles to possess functioning nuclear-tipped missiles.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asked officials to coordinate with other countries to ask North Korea to cancel its satellite launch plan. He instructed them to take all possible precautions in case of unexpected developments that were not specified.
“Even if the purpose is to launch a satellite, if ballistic missile technology is used, it is a violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, and this is a matter that greatly affects the safety of the people,” Kishida said.
North Korea said the first two attempts failed due to technical reasons in the early stages of each launch. South Korea retrieved debris from the first launch and called the satellite too crude to perform military reconnaissance.
After the second failure, North Korea had vowed a third launch would take place in October, but failed to follow through with the plan without giving any reason. South Korean officials recently said the delay happened likely because North Korea is receiving Russian technology assistance and that a launch could happen in coming days.
North Korea and Russia are pushing to expand their relationships in the face of separate confrontations with the West — North Korea over its nuclear ambitions and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Foreign governments and experts say North Korea is seeking Russian technologies to enhance its nuclear and other military capabilities in return for supplying conventional arms to support Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. Both Russia and North Korea dismissed the alleged weapon transfer deal as baseless.
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This version has corrected the opening date of the launch window to Wednesday Nov. 22, not Monday Nov. 20.
