Tokyo launches spy satellite to control Pyongyang

The Japanese government is playing down the military aspect of the launch to avoid provoking North Korea.

Tokyo (AsiaNews) – The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency – JAXA – has launched its third spy-satellite into orbit from the Tanegashima space centre in southern Japan. With this new satellite program, the Japanese government hopes to be able to inspect every part of the world and especially to keep an eye on North Korea.

The optical satellite, launched into orbit yesterday, is capable of photographing objects the size of a car; its production cost 29 billion yen and its launch about 10 billion.

Japan says its satellites should not be considered as a provocation: apart from security objectives, they are used for other missions like procuring information about the atmospheric weather and natural disasters.

The government spokesman said recent missile and nuclear activities in North Korea had not influenced the timing of the launch. All the same, critics say the latest launches went against Japan's policy to press ahead with only non-military space missions. It is a fact that the government opted for the spy-satellite program only after 1998, the year in which Pyongyang launched a Taepong-1 ballistic missile, which fell into the Pacific Ocean after flying over the Japanese archipelago.

• JAPAN
• –
• NORTH
• KOREA
• spy
• satellite
• ECONOMY
• war
• NUCLEAR