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North Korea on Tuesday pressed forward with a globally controversial plan to launch its first military spy satellite, notifying the International Maritime Organization that the launch could take place as soon as Wednesday.
The government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un notified the agency via email that the tentative launch window extends through June 11. The previous day, the reclusive nation apprised neighboring Japan of the launch plan, prompting an order from Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada to shoot down any North Korean satellite or debris that enters Japanese territory.
Any satellite launch would violate United Nations resolutions banning long-range missile tests by Pyongyang.
“The North Korea crisis, which has been in a state of hibernation for years, seems to be getting ready to explode again upon the world stage,” Harry Kazianis, CEO of Rogue States Project and a senior editor at the national focused website 19FortyFive, told USA TODAY.
Developments:
∙ Pyongyang notified the IMO, which is responsible for maritime safety, to provide coordinates of areas where debris could possibly fall.
∙ North Korea claims the satellite is crucial to monitor joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that have increased in recent months. North Korea describes the exercises as “reckless” invasion rehearsals.
∙ Washington and Seoul, saying the exercises are defensive, have expanded joint training since 2022 to cope with the North’s evolving threats.
US State Department urges Pyongyang to reconsider
The U.S. State Department warned that the technology used to launch the satellite would be “identical to, and interchangeable with” ballistic missile technology. The U.N. Security Council has banned North Korea from nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing since 2006.
“We urge the DPRK (North Korea) to refrain from further unlawful activity and call on Pyongyang to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” the statement reads.
Could North Korea fire a test missile into the ocean off California?
Kazianis says it’s clear Japan is committed to shooting down any missile or satellite that crosses its national boundaries and that Washington and Seoul would likely support Japan. It’s important to be “clear-eyed” about how North Korea might respond, he said. Kazianis believes Pyongyang could then test a nuclear weapon − and send an intercontinental ballistic missile across the Pacific Ocean, possibly within a few hundred miles off the California coast.
North Korea seems determined to prove its military is powerful, he said, adding that Kim will never give up his nation’s nuclear weapons.
“Pyongyang, thanks to decades of investments that total billions of dollars, is no military paper tiger but can raise tensions far beyond anything we saw” in previous years, Kazianis said. “And that could put us on the brink of a nuclear showdown.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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