Japan: NKorea Plans to Launch Satellite Between May 27 and June 4

FILE PHOTO: A North Korean flag flutters on top of the 160-meter tall tower at North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong, in Paju, South Korea, September 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A North Korean flag flutters on top of the 160-meter tall tower at North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong, in Paju, South Korea, September 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
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Japan: NKorea Plans to Launch Satellite Between May 27 and June 4

FILE PHOTO: A North Korean flag flutters on top of the 160-meter tall tower at North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong, in Paju, South Korea, September 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A North Korean flag flutters on top of the 160-meter tall tower at North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong, in Paju, South Korea, September 30, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

North Korea has notified Japan it plans to launch a rocket carrying a satellite between May 27 and June 4, the Japan Coast Guard said on Monday, drawing a swift warning from Seoul and Tokyo not to go ahead with what they called an illegal move.
The South Korean government said later the North had issued a notice of a military reconnaissance satellite launch. If successful, it would be Pyongyang's second spy satellite in orbit, Reuters reported.
The notice came ahead of a trilateral summit between Japan, South Korea and China in Seoul, where the South Korean and Japanese leaders demanded that the launch plan be scrapped, saying it violates UN Security Council resolutions.
Officials from the United States, Japan, and South Korea held phone talks in response to the notice and agreed that a North Korean satellite launch using ballistic missile technology would violate UN resolutions, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.
The officials agreed to demand that North Korea cancel the planned launch, the ministry said in an email.
South Korea said separately that the "so-called military reconnaissance satellite launch" would be a provocative act and a serious threat to regional security.
"Our military will be taking measures that show our strong capabilities and will," South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Sung-jun said at a news briefing, without elaborating.
Later, the Joint Chiefs said about 20 aircraft, including F-35 stealth fighter jets, conducted attack drills in airspace south of the no-fly zone along the inter-Korean border.
The North Korean notice included navigational warnings for areas in the Yellow Sea and east of Luzon Island in the Philippines, the Japanese coast guard said, where stages of the rocket are planned to drop.
North Korea launched its first military spy satellite in November, putting it in orbit after two earlier failed attempts in 2023.
The country claimed the satellite had taken surveillance photographs of the US White House, the Pentagon and South Korean military installations, but it has not published any pictures.
North Korea has vowed to launch three more spy satellites this year. It rejects the UN Security Council resolutions banning its satellite launch as infringing on its sovereign right to self defense and space exploration.
The successful launch in November came after the leaders of North Korea and Russia met at a space launch facility in the Russian Far East, where President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would help Pyongyang build satellites.



Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
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Grossi Wants to Meet with Iran’s Pezeshkian ‘at Earliest Convenience’

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi speaks to the media at the Dupont Circle Hotel in Washington, US, March 15, 2023. (Reuters)

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi announced he intends to visit Tehran through a letter he addressed to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iranian Mehr Agency reported that Grossi sent a congratulatory message to the Iranian president-elect, which stated: “I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on your election win as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“Cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at the focal attention of the international circles for many years. I am confident that, together, we will be able to make decisive progress on this crucial matter.”

“To that effect, I wish to express my readiness to travel to Iran to meet with you at the earliest convenience,” Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Grossi as saying.

The meeting – should it take place - will be the first for Pezeshkian, who had pledged during his election campaign to be open to the West to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue.

Last week, American and Israeli officials told the Axios news site that Washington sent a secret warning to Tehran last month regarding its fears of Iranian research and development activities that might be used to produce nuclear weapons.

In May, Grossi expressed his dissatisfaction with the course of the talks he held over two days in Iran in an effort to resolve outstanding matters.

Since the death of the former Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi, the IAEA chief refrained from raising the Iranian nuclear file, while European sources said that Tehran had asked to “freeze discussions” until the internal situation was arranged and a new president was elected.