North Korea Plans Satellite Launch Over Yellow Sea, Confirms Japan Coast Guard
North Korea has said it will launch a satellite between Aug. 24-31 in the direction of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, the Japanese Coast Guard said on Tuesday.
Japan would cooperate with South Korea and the United States to monitor the launch, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office said in a posting on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The Coast Guard added that the satellite if launched, was likely to fall outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
Subsequent Satellite Launch Plans Follow the Inspection of Military Facility
Earlier in the same month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s inspection of a military satellite facility, as conveyed by the government’s state media, KCNA, paved the way for the subsequent approval of the non-permanent satellite-launching preparatory committee’s actions.
On May 31, 2023, North Korea informed Japan of its intentions to launch a satellite between May 31 and June 11. Responding to this, the Japanese prime minister’s office released a statement, appealing to North Korea for restraint in launching and emphasizing cooperation with pertinent nations like the U.S. and South Korea.
However, the new “Chollima-1” satellite launch rocket encountered a setback due to instability in the engine and fuel system, as reported by the state news agency KCNA.
This marked North Korea’s sixth satellite launch attempt, the first since 2016, and it aimed to deploy North Korea’s inaugural spy satellite into orbit.
The launch incident triggered emergency alerts and brief evacuation warnings in certain parts of South Korea and Japan, though no danger or damage was ultimately reported.
Read Next: Ukrainian Drone Attack In Moscow Region Injures Two, Causes Disruption To Nearly 50 Flights
