By Hyunsu Yim and Nobuhiro Kubo\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0TOKYO\/SEOUL (Reuters) -Japan put its ballistic missile defences on alert on Monday and warned that it would shoot down any projectile that threatened its territory after North Korea notified Japan of a satellite launch between May 31 and June 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0North Korea says it has completed its first military spy satellite and leader Kim Jong Un has approved final preparations for the launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0Analysts say the satellite is part of a surveillance technology programme, that includes drones, aimed at improving nuclear-armed North Korea’s ability to strike targets in the event of war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0“We will take destructive measures against ballistic and other missiles that are confirmed to land in our territory,” Japan’s defence ministry said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0The ministry said it would use its Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) or Patriot Missile PAC-3 to destroy a North Korea missile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that any North Korean missile launch would be a serious violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning its nuclear and missile activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0“We strongly urge North Korea to refrain from launching,” his office said in a post on Twitter, adding it would cooperate with its U.S. ally, South Korea and other countries, and would do all it could to collect and analyse information from any launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0South Korea joined Japan in calling for North Korea to scrap the planned satellite launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0“We urge North Korea to withdraw the illegal plan to launch immediately. If North Korea presses ahead, it will pay the price and suffer,” a spokesperson for South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0Reclusive North Korea has conducted a series of missile launches and weapons tests in recent months, including a new, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0Its leader, Kim, in May inspected a military satellite facility, the North’s KCNA state news agency reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0North Korea has tried several times to launch “earth observation” satellites, of which two appeared to have been successfully placed in orbit, the latest in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0Japan in April dispatched to the East China Sea a destroyer carrying the SM-3 interceptors that can hit targets in space, and sent ground-based PAC-3 missiles, designed to strike warheads closer to the ground, to the Okinawan islands.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0Japan expects North Korea to fire the rocket carrying its satellite over the southwest island chain as it did in 2016, a defence ministry spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0“The government recognises that there is a possibility that the satellite may pass through our country’s territory,” Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, told a regular briefing after North Korea informed the Japanese coast guard of the planned launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0North Korean state media has criticised plans by its rivals, South Korea, the United States and Japan, to share real-time data on its missile launches, describing the three as discussing “sinister measures” for tightening military cooperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim in Seoul and Nobuhiro Kubo, Elaine Lies, Satoshi Sugiyama and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; additional reporting by Ju-min Park in Seoul and David Dolan in Tokyo; Editing by Robert Birsel)\u00a0<\/p>\n