North Korea claims success in launching first spy satellite after 3 attempts

North Korea’s space agency will soon send up more satellites to continue surveillance over South Korea and elsewhere, state media reported

The launch attempt late on Tuesday was the first since Vladimir Putin had promised Kim Jong-un that Moscow would help Pyongyang build satellites

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A photo provided by the North Korean government shows what it said was the launch of the Malligyong-1, a military spy satellite, into orbit late on Tuesday. Photo: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

Published: 2:19am, 22 Nov 2023Updated: 5:48pm, 22 Nov 2023

North Korea said it successfully placed its first spy satellite in orbit and vowed to launch more in the near future, defying international condemnation from the United States and its allies.

Officials in South Korea and Japan, which first reported the launch, said they could not immediately verify whether a satellite was placed in orbit. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the US military was still assessing whether the launch was a success or not.

South Korea responded to the North Korean announcement by saying it would take steps to suspend parts of a 2018 inter-Korean agreement designed to lower military tensions, its Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watches the satellite launch on Tuesday, in a photo released by state media. Photo: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

Yonhap cited a South Korean National Security Council statement as saying the move would involve restoring reconnaissance and surveillance operations in the area around the military demarcation line between the countries.

North Korea’s KCNA state news agency said the Malligyong-1 satellite was launched on a Chollima-1 rocket from the Sohae satellite launch facility at 10:42pm and entered orbit at 10:54pm on Tuesday. KCNA cited North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration.

North Korea had earlier notified Japan it planned to send up a satellite between Wednesday and December 1, after two failed attempts to launch what it called spy satellites earlier this year.

US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson called the launch “a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” and said it “raises tensions, and risks destabilising the security situation in the region and beyond”.