Japan launches GPS satellite to help DESTROY North Korea missile sites

The hermit kingdom has ramped up fears of World War 3 breaking out in recent weeks by launching two missiles over its neighbour and conducting a sixth nuclear test.

Now Japan has launched a fourth high-precision GPS satellite that could be used to pinpoint potential launch sites set up by the despotic regime and help take out key infrastructure with cruise missiles.

The Michibiki satellite lifted off from Japan’s southern Tanegashima space port aboard an H-2A rocket today, taking just over 28 minutes to reach orbit.

All four will now loop over Japan and Australia in a figure of eight, allowing uninterrupted coverage of the region.

Their stated aim is to help new business and boost economic growth.

But experts say they also have a vital use in monitoring Pyongyang after its recent threats.

The new satellite is said to have jamming capabilities that could knock out North Korea signals in the event of a conflict.

And the Japanese signals are said to be so highly encoded they would be impervious to any retaliatory jamming attempt by Pyongyang.

Perhaps most importantly, the GPS technology could also be used to increase the precision of US-made cruise missiles, should it want to acquire them for defence. 

Today’s launch came as the North made a chilling warning to Japan warning the country “can never be safe”.

A statement from state-controlled news agency KCNA said: “Should Japan take the advantages of the US war racket, they can not but be a target of the powerful strike means of the DPRK’s revolutionary armed forces.

“Japan can never be safe if a war breaks out on the Korean peninsula. 

“Everything in Japan mobilised for the war can be destroyed to pieces, to say nothing of the US aggression bases there.

“The Japanese authorities are strongly warned that if they go reckless with the backing of the US they can bring irrevocable misfortune to the Japanese archipelago.”

Japanese president Shinzo Abe used a UN speech last month calling for member states to block the North’s access to “goods, funds people and technology” if it continued to test nuclear weapons.