Japan said to plan launch of spy satellites to monitor North Korea.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Tokyo, 19 July: Japan plans to launch one half of a second pair of spy satellites using an H-2A rocket on 10 September, government officials said Wednesday [19 July]. The satellite system is purportedly to monitor North Korea.

After the successful launch of a first pair of satellites in March 2003, Japan lost a second pair in a failed launch of an H-2A rocket in November that year.

The new pair of satellites is designed to work with the first set to allow any point on Earth to be monitored once a day.

The two satellites consist of …