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Agence France-Presse

A SpaceX rocket on Friday launched South Korea’s first military spy satellite, intensifying a space race on the peninsula after Pyongyang launched its own first military eye in the sky last week.
Seoul’s reconnaissance satellite, carried by one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, lifted off from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California at 10.19am local time.
The rocket was emblazoned with the word “KOREA”.
The Yohnap news agency reported that the satellite reached orbit soon after and that communication was successfully established with ground control.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/iXndCsnEFL
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 1, 2023

Citing South Korea’s defence ministry, Yonhap reported that “the satellite was placed in orbit approximately four minutes after launch at 10.19am, and succeeded in communicating with a ground station at 11.37am, which means it is operating normally”.
Reaching orbit would mean that South Korea has acquired its first domestically built spy satellite to monitor nuclear-armed North Korea.
Seoul plans to launch four additional spy satellites by the end of 2025 to bolster its reconnaissance capacity over the North.
Set to orbit between 400 and 600km (250 to 370 miles) above Earth, Seoul’s satellite is capable of detecting an object as small as 30cm (11.8 inches), according to Yonhap.
North Korea halts military pact with Seoul, threatens to unleash new weapons
“Considering resolution and its capacity for Earth observation … our satellite technology ranks in the top five globally,” the defence ministry official said, as quoted by Yonhap.
The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang had successfully put its own spy satellite into orbit.
“Until now, South Korea has relied heavily on US-run spy satellites” when it comes to monitoring the North, said Choi Gi-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University.
While the South has “succeeded in the launch of a military communications satellite, it has taken much longer for a reconnaissance satellite due to higher technological hurdles,” he said.


Following the North’s successful launch of its own spy satellite, Choi said, “the South Korean government needs to demonstrate it can also pull this off”.
Experts have said putting a working reconnaissance satellite into orbit would improve North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly over South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict.
Since last week’s launch, the North has claimed its new eye in the sky has already provided images of major US and South Korean military sites – as well as photos of the Italian capital Rome.
North Korea claims success in launching first spy satellite after 3 attempts
It has not yet disclosed any of the satellite imagery it claims to possess.
The North’s launch of “Malligyong-1” was Pyongyang’s third attempt at putting such a satellite in orbit, after two failures in May and August.
Seoul has said the North received technical help from Moscow, in return for supplying weapons for use in Russia’s war with Ukraine.


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South Korea

South Korea launches first spy satellite with SpaceX, in tightening space race with the North

A SpaceX rocket carrying a South Korean military spy satellite launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Friday. Photo: SpaceX via AFP

Why Japan’s bid for talks on North Korean abductions will be ‘political suicide’ for Kishida

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Photo: AP

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a rally staged by the relatives of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s and their supporters in Tokyo, calling for the Japanese nationals to be brought home. Photo: Kyodo

Families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea, and their supporters, at a November 26 rally in Tokyo, where Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was among the 800 attendees. Photo: Kyodo

Sakie Yokota (left), whose daughter Megumi was abducted to North Korea at age 13 in 1977, at a Tokyo gathering organised by Christians to support her campaign for justice. Photo: Kyodo

Is Yoon silencing South Korean media under the ‘thinly veiled’ guise of fighting ‘fake news’?

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol. Photo: AFP 

Yoon Chang-hyeon (left), head of the National Union of Media Workers, is interviewed by Park Chan-kyong in Seoul in November 2023. Photo: Handout

Yoon Chang-hyeon (left), head of the National Union of Media Workers, is staging a sit-in in Seoul. Photo: Handout

A television reporter in Seoul. Conservatives are seeking to privatise South Korea’s two 24-hour news channels, YTN and Yonhap News TV. Photo: Shutterstock 

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol has in recent months targeted his critics. Photo: AFP 

Flourishing Russia ties help revive North Korea’s ‘paradise’ special economic zone

Chinese tourists pictured near a giant portrait of Kim Il-Sung at a square in Rason in 2011. Observers say there are no signs yet of large groups of foreign tourists returning to Rason. Photo: AFP

North Korean and Russian flags are seen at Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome in September, amid Kim Jong-un’s meeting there with Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

A satellite image released by Planet Labs shows a port in Rason, North Korea, last month. Photo: Planet Labs Pbc Handout via Reuters

North Koreans walk past a propaganda banner in Rason Special Economic Zone in 2010. Photo: EPA/Corbis

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their September meeting in the far eastern Amur region of Russia. Photo: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP

Chinese tourists pictured near a giant portrait of Kim Il-Sung at a square in Rason in 2011. Observers say there are no signs yet of large groups of foreign tourists returning to the special economic zone. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

East Asia

The reconnaissance satellite lifted off in a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California
Pyongyang sent its own first military eye in the sky into orbit last week, after two failures in May and August


Pyongyang sent its own first military eye in the sky into orbit last week, after two failures in May and August.


South Korea launches first spy satellite with SpaceX, in tightening space race with the North

The reconnaissance satellite lifted off in a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California Pyongyang sent its own first military eye in the sky into orbit last week, after two failures in May and August

The reconnaissance satellite lifted off in a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California

Pyongyang sent its own first military eye in the sky into orbit last week, after two failures in May and August