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Japan set to launch spy satellite

TANEGASHIMA (Japan): Amid unprecedented security and fears of North Korean retaliation, space centre officials on this remote southern island began their final preparations on Wednesday to launch Japan's first spy satellite into orbit. The launch, scheduled for early Friday, marks a major departure for Japan's space programme, which had avoided missions with any hint of a military objective. It has already prompted an angry outcry from North Korea, which on Wednesday said the launch indicates a ``dangerous phase'' in Japanese remilitarisation. Japanese officials say the spy satellite programme was prompted in part by North Korea's launching of a long-range ballistic missile that passed over Japan's main island before crashing into the Pacific off Alaska in 1998.

AP

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