North launches satellite ahead of schedule, JCS says

North Korea launched a suspected spy satellite on Tuesday night, according to the South Korean military.

In this photo carried by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency, North Korea launches a Chollima-1 rocket carrying its Malligyong-1 military reconnaissance satellite from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, on May 31. [YONHAP]

North Korea launched a suspected spy satellite on Tuesday night, according to the South Korean military.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North fired a military reconnaissance satellite toward the South.

The launch appeared to have taken place before the timeframe the North had relayed to the Japanese government. The regime said it would launch a satellite between Wednesday and Nov. 30.

The North told Japan that it expected debris from the satellite launch to fall in waters southwest of North Korea and east of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean, outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

The Japanese government briefly issued a warning via its J-Alert system to residents of Okinawa to take shelter after the launch took place.

The warning was lifted after the rocket flew over the archipelago toward the Pacific Ocean around 11:15 p.m.

The North conducted two failed attempts to launch a reconnaissance satellite into orbit in May and August.

Pyongyang said it planned its third launch attempt in October but did not follow through.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik told KBS in an interview on Sunday that the North was expected to carry out a satellite launch, having "almost resolved" its engine problems "with Russian assistance."

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his intentions to help develop North Korea's satellite program at a rare summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at a spaceport in Russia's Far East in September.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]