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North Korea has claimed to have successfully launched a military spy satellite into orbit for the first time, two months after Russian president Vladimir Putin pledged to support Kim Jong Un’s space ambitions.
The Malligyong-1 reconnaissance satellite reached orbit following a rocket launch from a site in the west of the country on Tuesday night, North Korean state media reported on Wednesday morning.
The Korean Central News Agency said Pyongyang’s space agency would “launch multiple additional reconnaissance satellites in the near future” as it seeks to improve its ability to identify and strike targets in South Korea and Japan.
Kim, who presided over the launch, “congratulated all the cadres, scientists and technicians” who had “made a great contribution to enhancing [the country’s] war deterrent”, according to the KCNA.
The US, South Korea and Japan said they could not independently verify whether the launch had successfully put a satellite into orbit.
North Korea had notified Japan on Tuesday of its plans to launch a satellite as early as Wednesday.
US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson condemned the launch as a “brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions”, adding that it “raises tensions and risks destabilising the security situation in the region and beyond”.
An operational spy satellite would strengthen North Korea’s ability to conduct a pre-emptive strike and monitor potential incoming threats from the US and South Korea. But analysts have raised questions about the sophistication of a North Korean spy satellite.
Pyongyang claims its space ambitions are a legitimate response to US-led “space militarisation” to attack North Korea and secure “world supremacy”.
Hours after the announcement of the launch, South Korea said it was partially suspending a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement that established air, land and sea buffer zones to reduce the risk of armed conflict.
“North Korea is clearly demonstrating that it has no will to abide by the [military agreement] designed to reduce military tension on the Korean peninsula and to build trust,” said South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
Seoul’s partial suspension of the agreement means it can resume reconnaissance and surveillance operations of North Korea closer to the demilitarised zone that separates the two countries. South Korea is planning to launch its own military spy satellite into orbit by the end of this month.
Pyongyang’s announcement of a successful launch on Wednesday followed two failed attempts this year, in May and August.
But Seoul said this month it had detected signs that North Korea’s space programme was receiving technical assistance from Moscow, after Kim met Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East in September.
Pyongyang had initially said it was planning its third spy satellite launch attempt in October. Some analysts suggested the launch was delayed to make adjustments based on Russian input.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said during a visit to Seoul this month that Moscow was offering technology and support for North Korea’s military programme in return for deliveries of artillery shells and rockets to supply its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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