MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st May, 2023) North Korea fired what it is believed to be a "space launch vehicle" in the southern direction early on Wednesday, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The South Korean military did not provide any details and is analyzing the launch, the report said.
Following the launch, a raid alert system went off in South Korea's capital Seoul, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
"Today, a 6:32 a.m. (local time, 21:32 GMT), an air raid alert was issued in Seoul. Citizens are asked to prepare for evacuation and to prepare to evacuate children, the elderly, and the weak first," the emergency message, sent to the phones of Seoul's citizens, read.
The alarm was also sounded on loudspeakers across Seoul, the correspondent reported.
On Monday, North Korea reportedly informed Japan and the International Maritime Organization that it planned to launch a reconnaissance satellite between May 31 and June 11. Debris from the rocket is expected to fall outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, in the Yellow Sea, southwest of North Korea, and in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, off the Philippines. The US, Japan and South Korea held phone talks over Pyongyang's plan to put a satellite into orbit. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered to shoot down the rocket if it poses a threat to the country's territory.
