TOKYO (AP) - Japan is
planning to send two more spy satellites into orbit by March 2007 to monitor
North Korea, a media report said Friday.
Kyodo News agency reported
that Japan plans to send up two spy satellites during fiscal 2006 ending in
March 2007, citing unnamed government sources.
Noriaki
Saito, an official of the Japan's space agency JAXA, could not confirm the
report.
Japan launched
two spy satellites in March 2003, but an attempt to send two more in November
that year failed
because of a defect in the rocket's booster system.
Kyodo said that Japan
earlier planned to put two additional satellites in orbit during fiscal 2005
but postponed the launches to the next fiscal year after finding defects in the
satellites.
The Japanese government is
setting aside about 61 billion yen (US $525 million; euro434 million) for the
launch and operation of spy satellites for fiscal 2006, the agency reported.
Japan is currently
developing a next-generation spy satellite with a higher image-resolution
capacity than the existing one, to be launched in fiscal 2009, according to
Kyodo.
Tokyo put its first two spy
satellites into space in March 2003 as part of a US $2-billion project to watch
North Korea's missile and nuclear programs. The move prompted protests from
North Korea, which warned Tokyo against triggering a regional arms race.
Japanese officials say the
program was prompted by North Korea's surprise test launch of a long-range
missile over Japan's main island in 1998. The satellites are not meant as a
provocation and would also be used for other missions such as monitoring
natural disasters and weather patterns, they say.
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