One source said that Pyongyang was informing about a planned launch of a ballistic missile, under the guise of a satellite launch.
Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has ordered Japan’s self-defense forces to shoot down a North Korean missile, launched under the guise of a satellite, if it poses a threat to the country's territory, the Japanese Defense Ministry said on Monday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told journalists on Monday that a potential North Korean ballistic missile launch, disguised as a satellite launch, would be a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a Monday press conference that Tokyo, together with the United States and South Korea, will insist on Pyongyang abandoning its launch plans.
NHK said that the alleged impact sites for falling fragments following the expected launch are outside Japan's exclusive economic zone (in the Yellow Sea southwest of North Korea and off the Philippines in the eastern Pacific).
Earlier in May, the state-run North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had inspected preparations for the launch of the country's first military reconnaissance satellite designed to deter the United States and South Korea.
In December at the Workers' Party plenum, Kim ordered the completion of the first reconnaissance satellite and the carrier rocket with a view to launching them in the near future. Pyongyang said the works were expected to be completed by April.