North Korea plans to launch a rocket with a spy satellite

(Patria) - North Korea announced yesterday that it plans to launch a rocket that will allegedly carry a military spy satellite, which has drawn sharp condemnation from South Korea and Japan.

The news of the planned launch, prohibited by UN resolutions, comes at a time when South Korean President Jun Suk Jul and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Seoul for their first trilateral meeting in more than four years.

The Japanese Coast Guard announced that North Korea had informed it of the planned launch of a "satellite rocket," with a safety warning for waters between the Korean Peninsula and China, and east of the main Philippine island of Luzon, from yesterday until June 3 at midnight.

The planned rocket launch would likely represent North Korea's attempt to place its second military spy satellite into orbit.

The South Korean military announced on Friday that it had detected signs of suspicious preparations for a spy satellite launch at North Korea's main Tongchang-ri launch site in the northwest of the country.

The United Nations prohibits North Korea from conducting any satellite launches, considering them a way to test long-range missile technology.

North Korea claims it has the right to do so, as spy satellites would enable it to better monitor the movements of the US and South Korea and improve the precision strike capability of its nuclear-armed missiles.

In phone calls yesterday, diplomats from Japan, South Korea, and the US agreed to call on North Korea to abandon the launch.

South Korea's Ministry of Unification called North Korea's satellite launch a "provocation that seriously threatens" its and regional security, while the military mobilized 20 fighter jets for an exercise.

Since 2022, North Korea has conducted a series of missile tests to modernize and expand its weapons arsenals, prompting the US, South Korea, and Japan to strengthen their security partnership in response.

Experts say North Korea likely believes that expanded weapons arsenals would increase its leverage in future diplomacy with the US.