The North Korean military has warned that it will retaliate against even the slightest attempt by Japan to intercept a rocket it plans to launch.

In what it called an “important announcement” on Thursday, the Korean People’s Army blasted Japan’s threat to intercept the North’s rocket, warning that if Japan attempts to do so, Pyongyang will retaliate without hesitation by striking already deployed intercepting facilities as well as major strategic targets in Japan.

The North Korean military urged the United States to pull out its missile-intercepting destroyers and spy planes from around the Korean Peninsula, noting that the U.S. clearly expressed its judgment that the North’s rocket is a vehicle meant to put a satellite into orbit and not a missile.

The military also called on Seoul to abandon efforts to disturb the North’s move to launch a satellite.