North Korea ‘notifies’ Japan of satellite launch plan

ISTANBUL

North Korea has notified Japan that it would launch a satellite between Aug. 24 and Aug. 31, officials in Tokyo said on Tuesday.

Japan Coast Guard was notified during the early hours of Tuesday that North Korea "intends to designate three maritime danger zones -- two of which are to the west of the Korean Peninsula, while the third is to the east of the Philippine island of Luzon," Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

All three areas lie outside the exclusive economic zones of Japan.



Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has urged Pyongyang “to exercise restraint and refrain from conducting a launch.”

"Japan considers the launch of a rocket with a satellite by North Korea as equivalent to the firing of a ballistic missile, breaching UN Security Council resolutions that have resulted in sanctions imposed on Pyongyang," Kishida told reporters.

On May 31, North Korea made a failed attempt to launch what it called a “military reconnaissance satellite.”