TOKYO—North Korea has notified Japan of its plan to launch a rocket carrying a space satellite between Nov. 22 and Dec. 1 in the direction of the Yellow Sea and East China Sea, Japan’s Coast Guard said on Tuesday.
If carried out, it would mark a third attempt by the nuclear-armed state this year to put a spy satellite into orbit.
Two previous attempts to place what would be North Korea’s first spy satellite into orbit failed, and after the last attempt in August, North Korea’s scientists had promised to try again in October.
The launch would be the first since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip abroad in September and toured Russia’s most modern space launch center, where President Vladimir Putin promised to help Pyongyang build satellites.
North Korea’s notice also follows its denouncement on Monday of the potential U.S. sale of hundreds of missiles to Japan and South Korea, calling it a dangerous act that raises tension in the region and brings a new arms race.
In that statement, carried by the KCNA state news agency, the North’s defense ministry said Pyongyang would step up measures to establish deterrence and respond to instability in the region, which it said…
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