A top North Korean military official has announced that the country will launch its first military spy satellite in June, calling the asset necessary to monitor the “dangerous military acts” of U.S. and South Korea.

In a statement released Tuesday morning, Ri Pyong Chol criticized joint exercises like ongoing live-fire “annihilation” drills and U.S. reconnaissance activities as justifying the satellite launch.

“The DPRK’s military reconnaissance satellite No. 1 to be launched in June and various reconnaissance means due to be newly tested are indispensable to tracking, monitoring, discriminating, controlling and coping with in advance in real time the dangerous military