North Korea

NKorea satellite not launched yet, despite Japan radar signal scare

Article published on the 2009-04-04 Latest update 2009-04-04 13:10 TU

Replicas of South and North Korean missiles on display at the Korea War Memorial in Seoul
(Photo: AFP)

North Korea says it is ready to launch a communications satellite into space within the next five days. It had not yet fired the rocket by the end of Saturday, the first day in a five-day window for the launch. Japan mistakenly said it had been fired, but quickly retracted its statement.

A Japanese crisis centre had misread a radar signal, and had sent out an alert saying that it believed North Korea had launched its rocket at 12:16pm local time. Five minutes later it retracted the email statement.

The government apologised for the mistake.

“I would like to a apologise frankly to people for causing concerns,” said Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Takeo Kawamura.

Correspondent Julian Ryall in Tokyo says there was also another, smaller false alarm Saturday.

“In a smaller area in the north of Japan, which is under the flight path of this rocket, there was another  local alert went out in a small town, that obviously set nervous jangling amongst local people,” he said.

North Korea has said it intends to launch the satellite sometime between 4 and 8 April, from 2-7am GMT.

“It looks pretty certain now that the North Koreans will launch. They really don’t have the ability to back down now,” said Ryall.

The United States and neighbouring Japan and South Korea maintain that the launch is not about a communications satellite, but to test a long-range ballistic missile.

Japan has stepped up its defence in anticipation of the launch. Ryall says there are anti-missile systems set up in the north, along with warships in the Sea of Japan and even defence systems set up in Tokyo.

”They’ve also stationed three patriot missile systems in Tokyo, including one in Kasumigaseki, which is the heart of Japanese bureaucracy,” he said.

“A lot of this is for show, there is no indication that this missile is going to be coming  down anywhere near Tokyo, but they really have gone to town with the media coverage, and there is a great deal of concern amongst the Japanese public.”

The Russian military is also monitoring the launch to ensure the rocket does not hit Russian territory.

“We have air defence forces on duty round the clock,” government spokesperson Sergei Roshcha said to the Vesti-24 television channel. “These are S-300 air defence systems that can strike targets at any altitude.”