Shaken by Launching Satellite

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Tuesday launched a reconnaissance satellite and announced that it was successful in putting the satellite into the orbit. It is possible that North Korea is laying a new threat on Northeast Asia with capability of watching the military moves of United States and South Korea and striking broader area than ever. Japanese government denounced North Korea as violating the past resolutions of United Nations Security Council, receiving no response from Pyongyang.

The people in Japan realized the launch with sudden stop of TV programs of all six major stations late Tuesday night. The government-run emergency warning system, or J-Alert, then appeared on the TV screens in all over Japan and reported North Korea’s launch of “missile” to the direction of Okinawa prefecture. Although it recommended the people in Okinawa to hide themselves inside solid buildings, NHK reported the behavior of the people in Ishigaki Island nothing different from an ordinary night. The alert was cancelled twenty minutes after the rocket passed over above Okinawa.

 

Korean Central News Agency reported as an article of Pyongyang Times on Tuesday that the National Aerospace Technology Administration of DPRK successfully launched the new-type carrier rocket “Chollima-1” loaded with the reconnaissance satellite “Malligyong-1” at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground. The report said that the launch of reconnaissance satellite was a legitimate right of the DPRK for strengthening its self-defense capabilities.

 

General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch and visited the site on Thursday, congratulating their first successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite. “Noting that the armed Forces of the DPRK have taken in their hands both ‘eyes’ overlooking a very long distance and a strong ‘fist’ beating a very long distance, He stressed once again that it is necessary to operate many more reconnaissance satellites,” reported another article as the comment of Kim.

 

After the launch of the rocket, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told the reporters that it violated the resolutions of U.N., even if they called it a satellite, and was a serious situation for the safety of Japanese nationals. “I already protested and denounced the launch with the strongest words against North Korea, and we will make efforts of warning and collecting information cooperating with United States or Republic of Korea.

 

ROK suspended on Wednesday a part of its military agreement with North Korea enacted in 2018, which was set by previous Moon Jae In administration on setting no-fly zone over the military border between the North and South. President Yoon Suk Yeol seems to have shown an aspect of conservatist at North’s demonstration in military capability. North Korea immediately took a counter action, issuing a statement of Ministry of National Defense, which says “We will immediately restore all military measures that have been halted according to the north-south military agreement.”

 

There is an argument in Japan that the technology for launching satellite was given by Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Kim cooperation on development of satellite in their summit meeting in September. Some experts in Japan suppose that the cooperation can be a reward for North Korea’s supply of military equipment for Russia fighting the Ukraine War.

 

Every time North Korea developed new technology of missile or satellite, Japan has been accusing it as violating U.N. resolutions. But Japan has not been successful in stopping the North’s technological advance. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been taking a stance of pressuring the North rather than having dialogues, the approach which produced no effective solution. Kishida administration needs to find another way to deal with the issue through bilateral or multilateral diplomatic channels.