North Korea said Tuesday it would launch its first military spy satellite in June and described space-based reconnaissance as crucial for monitoring the United States’ “reckless” military exercises with rival South Korea.
The statement came a day after North Korea notified Japan’s coast guard that it plans to launch a satellite sometime between May 31 and June 11 and that the event may have an affect in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and areas east of the Philippines’ Luzon Island.
Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said he ordered the country’s Self-Defense Forces to shoot down the satellite or debris if they enter Japanese territory.
In comments published on state media, senior North Korean military official Ri Pyong Chol decried the combined U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which Pyongyang has long described as invasion rehearsals. He said North Korea considers space-based reconnaissance to be “indispensable” for monitoring the “dangerous military acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces,” which are “openly revealing their reckless ambition for aggression.”
North Korea since early 2022 has test-fired about 100 missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland and launches it described as simulated nuclear attacks on targets in South Korea. North Korea has said its intensified testing activity is meant to counter its rivals’ joint military exercises as it continues to use the drills as a pretext to advance its arsenal of nuclear-capable weapons.
Last week, the South Korean and U.S. militaries conducted large-scale live-fire drills near the border with North Korea as the first of five rounds of exercises marking 70 years since the establishment of their alliance.