North Korea "June Satellite Launch"... Military on High Alert with Land, Sea, and Air Detection Forces

Aegis Destroyer, Green Pine Radar, Peace Eye, and Others Awaiting

North Korea has announced the launch of a satellite in early next month, prompting the detection equipment of the army, navy, and air force to enter emergency standby. North Korea's satellite launch vehicle shares similar technology with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), allowing the South Korean military to verify its detection capabilities and recover debris from the launch vehicle that falls into the sea.

The Aegis destroyer Sejong the Great is guarding the rough waters in front of Dokdo, our land. On the 24th of last month, Japan released a 17-minute video claiming that Japanese people conducted fishing activities on Dokdo in the past, pushing Korea-Japan relations toward a crisis from the very beginning of the new year.

The current forces on standby include the navy's Aegis destroyer, the army's Green Pine radar, and the air force's airborne early warning and control aircraft Peace Eye, all positioned mainly around the West Sea.

When North Korea launched the 'Unha-3' on December 12, 2012, the first to detect its trajectory was the Aegis destroyer Sejong the Great, which was on standby off the west coast. During the 2016 launch of the Earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, the air force's early warning aircraft Peace Eye was the first to capture the trajectory.

If North Korea proceeds as announced, the carrier rocket carrying the satellite is expected to follow a flight path where the first-stage booster will be dropped into international waters in the West Sea, 230 to 300 km west of Daecheon Port in Chungnam immediately after launch, and the fairing (satellite protective cover) will be dropped into international waters in the southwestern sea, 270 to 330 km west of Jeju Naval Base, before flying to waters approximately 700 to 1000 km east of Luzon Island in the Philippines to drop the second-stage booster.

The military expects the trajectory to be similar to that of the Kwangmyongsong launch vehicle carrying Kwangmyongsong-4 seven years ago and is focusing on recovering launch vehicle debris. This is because it can help understand North Korea's launch vehicle technology.

After recovering and analyzing the launch vehicle of Kwangmyongsong-4 in 2016, the military concluded that the fairing lacked any measures against shock, vibration, or soot to protect the satellite, indicating that the launch was not intended for satellite deployment.

However, there are concerns that if North Korea significantly increases the range of this satellite launch vehicle, radar detection and debris recovery may become impossible. In 2016, the launch vehicle escaped the radar coverage of South Korea’s Aegis destroyer over the southwestern sea near Jeju six minutes after launch, causing confusion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.