Ahead of today’s trilateral meeting in South Korea’s capital Seoul, North Korea has recently notified Japan of its plans to launch a satellite-carrying rocket into space before June 4 on Monday.
This development comes around the time when a first such summit involving leaders of South Korea, China, and Japan is going to be held after four years.
Later, a joint press conference involving South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, China’s Premier Li Qiang, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was held following Seoul’s meeting.
During the conference, Kishida emphasized the importance of North Korean denuclearization, stating that stability on the Korean peninsula is a “common interest” of the three countries involved.
As per Japan Coast Guard, North Korea also notified Japan about three “danger zones” where debris of rocket might fall, those following areas are two western side area of Korean peninsula and other in the east of Philippines’s Luzon Island.
However, during the outset of the trilateral summit, Kishida tried to convince North Korea, to halt its planned satellite launch with Yoon also echoing the same, asserting, it would endanger both regional & global peace and stability.
Further, the officials of Japan, United States and South Korea also affirmed, that they will urge North korea to halt any plans of projectile launch using ballistic missile technology during their phone talks.
As it constitutes violation of UN security council resolutions, that bar the launch of projectile with ballistic missile technology.
Earlier, north korea announced the launch of its first military spy satellite into orbit in November last year.
And it has also declared, it will launch three more spy satellites this 2024.
While South korea too is arming itself, as recently, it has successfully launched its second indigenous spy satellite atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, which is second in a series of military satellites launched by the country, as a part their plans to deploy five spy satellites by 2025, which aims to monitor North Korea in a better way.
Earlier, on May 17, South Korea’s military disclosed, that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast. According to Yonhap, the launch came following North Korea’s firing of 600-mm super-large shells, believed to be short-range ballistic missiles, into the East Sea.
In April, this year, North Korea also conducted a tactical exercise, which helped in simulating a nuclear counterattack, where its super-large multiple rocket launchers were showcased
According to Yonhap, country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, also oversaw the drill, which emphasized the pivotal role of these rocket units in significantly bolstering the state’s nuclear force’s prompt counterattack capabilities.
