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 (9.42pm, Singapore time) on Tuesday and entered orbit at 10.54pm. KCNA cited North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration.
North Korea had notified Japan it planned to launch a satellite between Wednesday and Dec 1, after two failed attempts to launch what it called spy satellites this year.
US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson called the launch “a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions”, and said it “raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond”.
Tuesday’s launch is the first since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Vladimir Putin at Russia’s modern space facility in September for a summit at which the Russian president promised to help Pyongyang build satellites.
South Korean officials have said the latest launch attempt most likely incorporated technical assistance from Moscow as part of a growing partnership that has seen North Korea send millions of artillery shells to Russia.
Some missile experts, however, said it may be too soon for Russian technical assistance to have been fully incorporated in the satellite or the rocket.
“We have to see how properly this is being operated,” said Lee Choon-geun, a rocket expert at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
Russia and North Korea have denied conducting arms deals, but are publicly promising deeper cooperation.
KCNA said Kim Jong Un personally observed the launch, which came just over a week before South Korea plans to send its first spy satellite into space on a rocket operated by the US company Space X.
After the May launch attempt, South Korea retrieved the wreckage of the satellite from the sea and said an analysis showed it had limited use as a reconnaissance platform.
South Korea’s military said it believed the latest rocket carried a reconnaissance satellite and was launched toward the south.
Over its emergency broadcasting system, the Japanese government told residents in Okinawa to take cover inside buildings or underground. It later said the rocket appeared to have flown over and past Okinawa towards the Pacific Ocean, and it lifted its emergency warning.
Source: CNA
