Japan put its military on alert on Wednesday to shoot down any
North Korean rocket that threatens it, while South Korea warned the North it
would pay a "severe price" if it goes ahead with a satellite launch
that South Korea considers a missile test.
North notified U.N. agencies on Tuesday of its plan to launch
what it called an "earth observation satellite" some time between
Feb. 8 and 25.
North Korea has said it has a sovereign right to pursue a space
program by launching rockets, although the United States and other governments
suspect that such launches are in reality tests of its missiles.
"We have defenses ready to deal with all threats, but in
view of the announcement I have put the Self Defense Force's Aegis destroyers
and our PAC-3 units on alert and issued an order to shoot down any ballistic
missile threat," Japan's defense minister, Gen Nakatani, told media
briefing.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would work with the
United States and others to "strongly demand" that North Korea refrain
from what he described as a planned missile launch.
Tension rose in East Asia last month after North Korea's fourth
nuclear test, this time of what it said was a hydrogen bomb.
A rocket launch coming so soon after the nuclear test would
raise concern that North Korea plans to fit nuclear warheads on its missiles,
giving it the capability to launch a strike against South Korea, Japan and
possibly targets as far away as the U.S. West Coast.
North Korea last launched a long-range rocket in December 2012,
sending an object it described as a communications satellite into orbit.
South Korea said the North should immediately call off the
launch, which is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the South's
presidential Blue House said in a statement.
"North
Korea's notice of the plan to launch a long-range missile, coming at a time
when there is a discussion for Security Council sanctions on its fourth nuclear
test, is a direct challenge to the international community," the Blue
House said.