South Korea will launch a missile that will haul a satellite to orbit, according to Kyodo News.
The missile will go over waters near Japan. That South Korean missile launch follows a North Korean missile launch just weeks ago that Pyongyang claimed was to launch a satellite but which U.S., South Korean and other observers say was an illicit test of a long-range missile, the Taepo Dong-2. It flew near Japan before the nose of the rocket and its failed third stage plunged into the Pacific Ocean east of Japan.
That North Korean missile went about 1,240 miles, well short of the Taepo Dong-2 range of 4,000 miles, but vastly longer than the failure of a Taepo Dong-2 launched in 2006 that destructed seconds after liftoff.
In recent weeks, the North continued its bellicose manner by ripping the United Nations for condemning the clandestine Taepo Dong-2 launch, with Pyongyang kicking U.S. and U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the Yongbyon reactor, and out of the country. (Please see full story in this issue.)
In South Korea, plans are being set to launch that two-stage rocket in late July that will fly near Okinawa and Kyushu.