North Korea plans to launch a spy satellite into space soon. Immediately after the announcement, the Japanese government put its missile defense system on alert.
There is a possibility that the satellite will cross the territory of Japan. It is assumed that North Korea will fire the rocket carrying its satellite, as it did during the satellite launch in 2016 over the southwestern island chain. North Korea had previously criticized South Korea's plan to share real-time data on North Korean missile launches with Japan and the U.S.