2023-08-22 06:51:35
In this photo, provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong-un (center) visits a swamp being restored in Nampho, North Korea, August 21, 2023. AP
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Tuesday August 22 that his government had been informed by North Korea of the launch of a satellite in the coming days. At the same time, the Japanese Coast Guard issued an alert for a “satellite rocket launch” between August 24 and 31 concerning three danger zones: the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the waters east of the island of Luzon, in the Philippines.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made the development of a military spy satellite a priority for “to deal with the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals”. But a first attempt to launch it at the end of May ended in failure. The United States and South Korea, which are currently conducting major joint military maneuvers, suspect Pyongyang of developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile, which includes technologies similar to those of a satellite launcher.
“North Korea’s so-called satellite launch is a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions”which prohibit it from developing ballistic missiles, responded Tuesday in a press release the South Korean unification ministry, in charge of North Korean affairs. “No matter what excuses North Korea tries to make, it cannot justify this illegal act”he added.
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Tokyo calls “to cancel this launch”
The Japanese Prime Minister, for his part, at a press conference, called on Pyongyang “to cancel this launch”, and ordered his government to take “all possible measures to prepare for any unforeseen eventuality”.
South Korean intelligence had told parliament last week that North Korea may try again to launch a satellite before the 75th anniversary of the regime’s founding on September 9.
On May 31, a rocket presented by Pyongyang as being the launcher of a military observation satellite crashed into the Yellow Sea shortly after takeoff, not without having triggered air alerts in South Korea and in the Japanese archipelago. from Okinawa. North Korea had invoked a technical problem, the officials of which had then been “severely criticized” by the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party.
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The South Korean army, after a complex operation of thirty-six days at sea, had finally recovered parts of the rocket and the satellite. After examination by South Korean and American experts, the South Korean Ministry of Defense estimated that the satellite had no “no military use”.
The possibility of “a thermonuclear war”, according to the official North Korean agency
The new launch announcement by Pyongyang coincides with “Ulchi Freedom Shield”, the name given to the large-scale US-South Korean maneuvers which began on Monday and are due to run until August 31. According to the three allies, these exercises aim to respond to the growing threats from North Korea, which has nuclear weapons.
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North Korea’s official news agency (KCNA) on Tuesday condemned, in an editorial, these military exercises in “aggressive character”. If the exercises involve a “nuclear provocation”the possibility “of a thermonuclear war on the Korean peninsula will become more realistic”she warned.
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Pyongyang, which believes that these joint exercises are in fact preparing an invasion of the North or an overthrow of its regime, has repeatedly warned that actions “overwhelming” would respond to it. Computer attacks attributed to North Korean hackers have already targeted South Korean companies working for the two armies in recent days.
Last week, US President Joe Biden received his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David. It was the first time the leaders of the three countries met for a stand-alone summit. They had announced a program of joint military exercises over several years and the establishment of an emergency communication channel at the highest level, a sort of “red telephone” with three handsets, to guard against the northern threat. -Korean.
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