The images include pictures of North Korea's suspected missile launch sites and nuclear facilities.
The classified payload was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre, on a remote island off southern Japan, on Friday and is orbiting at a height of 300 miles.
The government's Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Centre and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which launched the satellite atop one of its 174-foot-tall H-2A rockets, have declined to reveal details of the mission.
The vehicle is the fourth "Information Gathering Satellite" to be launched since March 2003. The first satellite was put into orbit after North Korea fired a missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean in 1998.
Ignoring international pressure, North Korea fired a Taepodong-2 missile - with an estimated range of 4,100 miles - in April 2009 and has carried out regular tests of short-range weapons since.
According to experts, the £322.7 million satellite, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp., is fitted with optical cameras and a telescope to provide images to the Japanese intelligence and defence authorities. The satellite is able to identify targets as small as 23 inches. Two of the earlier satellites have reached the end of their operational lives, but working with the surviving vehicle the new satellite will be tasked with providing advance warning of an imminent missile launch.
By Julian Ryall taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8789078/Japan-launches-spy-satellite-to-monitor-North-Korea.html
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