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3 Japan: When a spy satellite isn't a
spy satellite By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - Japan's multibillion-dollar
intelligence-gathering satellite program,
ostensibly for peaceful, non-military purposes, is
expected to make significant headway with the
successful launch of the nation's fourth such
satellite, scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
A successful launch of the new satellite
would complete Japan's planned four-satellite
system. Nevertheless, the nation will continue to
rely heavily on the United States for satellite
intelligence. Many experts
agree that Japan needs to do much more, especially
boosting both the number and quality of its
intelligence-gathering satellites.
The
launch of the new satellite is part of Japan's
recently accelerated efforts to boost its defense
capabilities, including a missile-defense system,
either on its own or with the US, amid
skyrocketing concerns about neighboring North
Korea's nuclear-weapons and missile programs.
These concerns have not abated despite recent
progress on the diplomatic front.
After
six days of negotiations, delegates to the
six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear
ambitions, held in Beijing, agreed on February 13
on initial steps for that country's nuclear
disarmament. Pyongyang has pledged to shut down
and seal its Yongbyon reactor within 60 days in
return for 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil or economic
aid of equal value. The closure of Yongbyon will
be verified by international inspectors. North
Korea will eventually receive an additional
950,000 tonnes of fuel oil or economic aid of
equal value when it permanently disables its
nuclear operations.
While welcoming the
agreement, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has
said Tokyo will not offer any aid to North Korea
because its past abductions of Japanese nationals
remain unresolved. Japan will instead take part in
surveys of North Korea's energy shortages under
the six-party-talks framework, he said. "We will
cooperate indirectly," Abe said.
US Vice
President Dick Cheney recently visited Japan for
talks with Abe and other officials. Cheney told
Abe that the US respects Japan's position and
wants "to seek a resolution of the tragic case of
Japanese abductees". Cheney also met the parents
of one of the abductees before flying on to Guam
and then to Australia. Cheney and Japanese
officials also reaffirmed their countries'
intentions to collaborate closely on missile
defense.
Japan is scheduled to blast the
new radar satellite off atop the domestically
developed H2-A rocket at 1:41pm Japan time on
Saturday from Tanegashima Space Center, 985
kilometers southwest of Tokyo. After achieving
orbit, the new satellite is to circle the Earth at
an altitude of 400-600km, passing over the North
and South poles. An experimental optical satellite
is also to be sent aloft on Saturday aboard the
same H2-A rocket. The Cabinet Satellite
Intelligence Center, which operates the
satellites, said it will not use the experimental
satellite for monitoring.
Before
Saturday's scheduled launch, Japan already had put
three intelligence-gathering satellites in orbit
under a program prompted by North Korea's 1998
test-firing of a multi-stage ballistic missile,
which flew over Japan and fell into the North
Pacific. The first two satellites were launched in
March 2003. But the multibillion-dollar program
suffered a major setback in November 2003, when a
rocket carrying two satellites malfunctioned and
was destroyed in mid-flight. Japan successfully
launched the third satellite last September.
A successful launch of the fourth
satellite on Saturday would provide Japan with an
all-weather capability to survey virtually any
point in the world at least once every day,
instead of once every two days at present, and
keep watch on North Korea's military movements.
Two of the satellites, including the one launched
in September, have optics that produce images of
objects as small as a meter in diameter when
photographed from outer space. The other two,
including the newest one, use radar imaging to
penetrate cloud cover.
Japan insists that
the satellites are not meant to be a provocation
and will also be used for monitoring natural
disasters and weather patterns. Domestic critics
of the surveillance program claim, however, that
sending up the satellites runs afoul of a
resolution adopted in the Diet, Japan's
parliament, in 1969 that restricts the use of
space to peaceful purposes. Since the Diet
resolution, the government has officially defined
"peaceful" utilization of space as "non-military".
That's why the Japanese authorities carefully
avoid describing them as "spy satellites".
Japan's satellite program is under the
direct supervision of the cabinet, not the
military, but it is obvious that its primary
purpose is to keep close tabs on North Korea's
military movements, and thereby to boost its
defense capabilities, either on its own or with
the US.
Defense leaders are well aware
that China's success in intercepting and
destroying one of its old weather satellites
last
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