North Korea To Launch Satellite In June To Monitor US Military Activity - Official

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th May, 2023) North Korea will launch a reconnaissance satellite in June to monitor the United States' military activity and strengthen its defense capabilities, the state-run North Korean Central news Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday, citing a ruling party official.

"The DPRK's military reconnaissance satellite No. 1 to be launched in June and various reconnaissance means due to be newly tested are indispensable to tracking, monitoring, discriminating, controlling and coping with in advance in real time the dangerous military acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces openly revealing their reckless ambition for aggression as time passes by and to strengthening the military preparedness of the armed forces of the DPRK," the KCNA reported, citing Ri Pyong Chol, the vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Ri also accused the US of "hostile air espionage activities" over the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding area.

Besides, the vice-chairman said that Pyongyang will carry out a comprehensive analysis of all existing threats and intensify efforts aimed at improving its means of deterrence.

On Monday, North Korea reportedly informed the International Maritime Organization that it planned to launch a satellite between May 31 and June 11. Debris of the rocket are expected to fall outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, in the Yellow Sea, southwest of North Korea, and in the eastern part of the Pacific ocean, off the Philippines. The US, Japan and South Korea held phone talks over Pyongyang's plan to put a satellite into orbit. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered to shoot down the rocket if it poses a threat to the country's territory.