Japan sees no problem in South Korea's plans to launch a rocket carrying its first satellite which may fly over Japanese territory, the government said Wednesday.
"I believe there is no problem as we have been holding informal talks on the issue, including on the aspect of safety" with South Korea, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone told reporters.
The two-stage rocket will be launched in late July and "is due to fly over Japanese territory," Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama was quoted as saying on the ministry's website.
Kodama stressed that the South Korean rocket launch is different from the one by the North on April 5 as "the launch by North Korea is banned under the UN Security Council resolutions 1965 and 1718."
"On the other hand, there are no such resolutions for a South Korean rocket launch," he said. "We also know through informal talks with South Korea that their launch is planned for peaceful purposes."
North Korea launched what it claims was a communications satellite earlier this month, earning the regime international condemnation.
Japan, the United States and South Korea believe Pyongyang's real purpose was to test the launch vehicle — a Taepodong-2 intercontinental ballistic missile which could in theory reach Alaska or Hawaii.
Japanese media reports have said the South Korean rocket is likely to fly over waters off Japan's southwestern Kyushu island and the southern Okinawa group of islands, and that the first stage will drop in the East China Sea off Kyushu and the second stage in waters off the southeastern Philippines.
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