People watch the news at a station in Seoul, South Korea, 30 May 2023. According to the Yonhap news agency, North Korea will launch a military spy satellite in early June. EPA-EFE/JEON HEON-KYUN
TOKYO - North Korea has fired a possible ballistic missile, the Japanese Defense Ministry said Wednesday, after the country previously notified Japan of a plan to launch a "satellite" before June 11.
The firing of the projectile came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un instructed his country's space agency to make final preparations for the launch of Pyongyang's first military reconnaissance satellite, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang notified the Japan Coast Guard of three maritime danger zones in which objects may fall during the period starting Wednesday, with two areas to the west of the Korean Peninsula and one to east of the Philippines. All areas are outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone.
On Monday, Ri Pyong Chol, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, said the North's military reconnaissance satellite is "indispensable to tracking, monitoring, discriminating, controlling and coping with in advance in real time the dangerous military acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces."
Noting "the reckless military acts" by the United States and South Korea, "We steadily feel the need to expand reconnaissance and information means and improve various defensive and offensive weapons," Ri said through KCNA.
Emphasizing that Japan considers the launching of a rocket carrying a satellite as equivalent to a ballistic missile test on the basis of historical precedent, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned that following through on the plan would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Sanctions have been imposed on North Korea for its weapons-related activity based on the U.N. resolutions.
Pyongyang, which launched missiles a record 37 times last year, has continued firing ballistic missiles this year, with fears mounting that the country may be preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test in the near future.
==Kyodo