Japan infuriates North Korea with spy satellites

JAPAN sent two spy satellites into orbit yesterday, infuriating heavily-armed neighbour North Korea, whose firing of a missile over Japan in 1998 prompted the move.

Pyongyang denounced the launch, which will give Tokyo its first independent opportunity to scrutinise North Korea from space, as a “hostile act” that could set off an arms race.

“The satellite launch deprived Japan of any justification and qualification to talk about the DPRK’s (North Korea’s) satellite launch,” said a foreign ministry statement carried on the state-run KCNA news agency.

“Japan will be held wholly responsible for sparking a new arms race in Northeast Asia,” it added.

The satellite deployment was planned after Pyongyang’s 1998 firing of a Taepodong ballistic missile, which passed over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. North Korea said the missile launch was aimed at putting a satellite of its own into orbit.

Japan remains nervous after North Korea’s recent launch of two short-range missiles, although the defence ministry said there was no sign yesterday that another launch was imminent.

CIA director George Tenet told a US Senate committee last month that North Korea had a missile that could reach the US West Coast, but a senior US defence official said the weapon had not been tested.

Japanese Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba told South Korea’s JoongAng Daily newspaper in an interview published yesterday Pyongyang was unlikely to have the United States in its sights.