SEOUL, North Korea launched an unidentified projectile on Monday, South Korea’s military said, after the country announced a satellite launch plan.
The North launched the projectile in a southward direction over the Yellow Sea, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message to reporters without providing further details, including where it was launched from.
Pyongyang had earlier notified Japan that it will launch a satellite sometime before June 4 and designated three areas, where rocket debris will fall, as a precaution for safety. The liftoff came on the first day of the eight-day launch window.
The launch also came after President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a trilateral summit in Seoul on Monday and reaffirmed their commitment to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.
During the summit, Yoon and Kishida also urged the North to call off the launch plan.
If confirmed, it would mark the North’s second satellite launch after the country
successfully put its first military spy satellite into orbit in November last year after two unsuccessful attempts in May and August, respectively.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to send three more spy satellites into orbit in 2024.
The North’s space rocket launches have drawn condemnation from Seoul, Washington and others, as they violate U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban the country from launches using ballistic missile technology.
Source: Yonhap News Agency