North Korea has begun informing international organizations of its intention to launch an earth observation satellite sometime between February 8 and 25.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London said it had received notice of the launch and would be issuing an advisory to its members. Such notifications are commonplace for space launches or missile tests and serve as warnings to ships and aircraft to stay away from areas through which the rocket will fly or fall.
The launch notification named the satellite as “Kwangmyongsong,” (???) which is the same name given to previous satellites that were built by the country.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said it had also received a notification. The letter, which came through the DPRK’s mission to the United Nations in New York, indicated the satellite would have a lifetime of 4 years.
Here’s the notification to the IMO: