(MENAFN- AzerNews) North Korea will launch its first military reconnaissance
satellite in June for monitoring U.S. activities, state media KCNA
reported on Tuesday, drawing criticism over its potential use of
banned missile technology, Azernews reports, citing Reuters.
Ri Pyong Chol, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission
of the North's ruling Workers' Party, denounced ongoing joint
military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea as openly showing
"reckless ambition for aggression."
U.S. and South Korean forces have carried out various training
exercises in recent months, including the biggest-ever live-fire
exercises last week, after many drills were scaled back amid
COVID-19 restrictions and diplomatic efforts with North Korea.
Ri said the drills required Pyongyang to have the "means capable
of gathering information about the military acts of the enemy in
real time."
"We will comprehensively consider the present and future threats
and put into more thoroughgoing practice the activities for
strengthening all-inclusive and practical war deterrents," Ri said
in the statement carried by the KCNA news agency.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has said it has completed development
of its first military spy satellite, and leader Kim Jong Un has
approved final preparations for the launch.
The statement did not specify the exact launch date, but North
Korea has notified Japan of a planned launch between May 31 and
June 11, prompting Tokyo to put its ballistic missile defences on
alert.
Japan has said it would shoot down any projectile that threatens
its territory.
"Even if North Korea might call it a 'satellite', this is a
violation of relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions that
prohibit North Korea from all launches using the ballistic missile
technology," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told a
news conference on Tuesday.
South Korea's foreign ministry also slammed the North's use of
ballistic missile technology as a clear violation of the U.N.
sanctions, saying Ri was making a "farfetched excuse" to bolster
its weapons programmes.
"It is a nonsense to use our legitimate joint training and
combined defence posture with the U.S., which were to respond to
North Korea's advanced nuclear and missile threats, as an excuse
for launching a reconnaissance satellite," ministry spokesman Lim
Soo-suk told a briefing.
Lim urged Pyongyang to drop its plan, and vowed to sternly
respond any launches.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Monday any North
Korean launch using ballistic missile technology, including for a
satellite, would violate U.N. resolutions.
The launch would be the North's latest in a series of missile
launches and weapons tests, including one of a new, solid-fuel
intercontinental ballistic missile last month.
Analysts say the satellite will improve North Korea's
surveillance capability, enabling it to strike targets more
accurately in the event of war.
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