North Korea to Launch More Spy Satellites

Defending North Korea's right to acquire space-based reconnaissance capabilities, Kim Yo Kong accused the United States of "gangster-like" hypocrisy.

“We are ready to act whatever it may be in defending its sovereign right and interests,” she said in a statement carried by state-run KCNA.

The remarks came a day after Malligyong-1, the country's first spy satellite, crashed into the sea from a North Korean long-range rocket.

A second launch will take place after North Korea analyses what went wrong following its unusually rapid admission of failure.

In addition to South Korea, which retrieved some debris from the water, Tokyo and Washington condemned the launch, which raised tensions and threatened to destabilize security in the region and beyond by using banned ballistic missile technology.

On Thursday, KCNA also published images of what it said was the new Chollima-1 rocket lifting off from a coastal launch pad in flames and smoke.

Commercial satellite imagery of one of the launch pads at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station showed more than a dozen vehicles, US-based 38 North, a programme to analyse North Korea, said in a report.

“Which pad was used for the launch cannot yet be confirmed,” the report said. “However, activity at the main launch pad is consistent with post-launch assessment and clean-up efforts.”

Since 1998, Pyongyang had launched five satellites.

Of the five, three failed immediately and two appeared to have been put into orbit – but signals from them have never been independently detected, suggesting they might have malfunctioned.

The most recent satellite launch was in 2016. Pyongyang successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) the following year.

North Korea carried out more than 100 weapons tests since January 2022 as it moves to modernise its military weaponry and equipment.