North Korea announced that it had put its first spy satellite into orbit, an action to which the South has responded with the partial suspension of a 2018 bilateral military agreement, which increases the escalation of tension on the peninsula by another step.
The National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) said that it launched the Chollima-1 rocket the day before at 10:42 p.m. local time (1:42 p.m. GMT on Tuesday) and that it “precisely placed” the satellite into orbit. Malligyong-1′ about 11 minutes after takeoff, according to the state agency KCNA.
In the absence of Seoul or Washington confirming that the satellite is correctly deployed and operational in a low-altitude polar orbit, NATA assures that it will present its plan to the next plenary session of the North Korean single party, scheduled for the last days of December. “launch several additional reconnaissance satellites in a short period of time.”
The launch comes after two failed attempts in the months of May and August, and was supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who appeared at the Sohae launch base (northeast of the country) surrounded by technicians from the North Korean space program and important figures within the ballistic missile program, according to photos published by KCNA.
The space rocket was launched about an hour before the window that North Korea had notified maritime authorities that same day to restrict navigation in areas where debris could fall and that extended from the coast came into effect. past midnight (3:00 p.m. GMT on Tuesday) until December 1.
In addition to the unanimous condemnation of Seoul, Tokyo and Washington, the launch caused the activation for a few minutes of Japan’s national anti-missile system, through which a message was sent to the inhabitants of the Okinawa prefecture (southwest) recommending that they seek shelter. .
Diplomatic representatives of the three countries recalled today that UN Security Council sanctions prohibit North Korea from carrying out space launches considering that it uses its own intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology.
Seoul considers it possible that, to solve the technical problems experienced by the Chollima-1 in May and August, Pyongyang has received technical assistance from Moscow in exchange for sending it weapons for use in Ukraine.
The South Korean authorities have assured that the North Korean regime has sent to Russia some 2,000 containers of military equipment consisting of more than a million rounds of artillery and possibly also ammunition for tanks, anti-tank guided missiles or portable surface-to-air missiles and they even affirm that have been able to transport short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) by train or plane.
It is believed that this exchange agreement was endorsed at the summit held in September between the North Korean leader and President Vladimir Putin at the Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome, where Kim showed great interest by visiting a launch pad and an assembly building for the Angara rockets.
A South Korean military source said this week that even before the summit, Russia transferred a liquid fuel engine weighing about 80 tons to North Korea and that apparently Russian engineers visited the secretive Asian country after the September meeting.
In response to the launch, the South Korean Government approved partially suspending the military agreement it signed in 2018 with North Korea, as it had warned in recent days. The Executive, remembering that the regime has violated the agreement several times in recent years, thus decided to restart South Korean surveillance and reconnaissance operations along the border with its neighbor, with which it is technically still at war.
The 2018 agreement reflected the brief rapprochement that both Koreas experienced five years ago and was an important step to reduce military tension on the border. However, after the failure of denuclearization negotiations with Washington in 2019, Pyongyang approved a weapons modernization plan – which includes deploying military satellites and has involved carrying out countless missile tests – in addition to rejecting the restart of dialogue and seeking a greater rapprochement with Beijing and Moscow.
Meanwhile, Seoul and Washington have reinforced military cooperation with Tokyo and strengthened their deterrence mechanism by increasingly deploying US strategic assets to the peninsula, as is the case of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, which arrived yesterday with its group of attack on Busan (southeast of Seoul).
