North Korean spy satellite explodes in flight as latest launch fails | North Korea

North Korea’s latest attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit ended in a mid-air explosion, Pyongyang said late Monday, hours after its announcement of a planned launch was criticized by Seoul and Tokyo.

Japanese broadcaster NHK broadcast footage of what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky, which then exploded into a fireball. NHK said the images were taken from northeast China at the same time as the launch attempt.

The satellite “exploded in the air during the first flight stage and failed to launch,” the Northern National Aerospace Technology Administration said in a statement.

An “expert examination concluded that the cause of the accident was the operational reliability of the new liquid oxygen and oil engine,” added the statement published by the official Korean news agency.

Putting a spy satellite into orbit has long been a top priority for Kim Jong-un’s regime, and he claimed success in November, after two failed attempts last year. North Korea says the Malligyong-1 (meaning Telescope-1) satellite it put into orbit in November is operating successfully, but Seoul’s intelligence services have rejected the claim.

Seoul says Kim received Russian technical assistance for the launch, in exchange for sending weapons containers to Moscow for use in Ukraine.

Pyongyang informed Japan on Monday of its intention to put another satellite into orbit, sparking criticism from Seoul and Tokyo, who urged Kim to cancel it.

South Korea’s military said it detected the launch but the satellite “is presumed to have exploded in the air.”

“South Korean and US intelligence services are analyzing it in detail in close cooperation,” South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said.

Nuclear-armed North Korea is barred by several U.N. resolutions from testing using ballistic technology, and analysts say there is significant technological overlap between space launch capabilities and the development of ballistic missiles.

The launch “is a provocative act that clearly violates the UN Security Council resolution prohibiting the use of ballistic missile technology,” the South Korean military said.

The US Indo-Pacific Command called the launch “a blatant violation of several unanimous UN Security Council resolutions” and said in a statement that it “risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond “.

Japan briefly issued an alert on Monday warning residents of the southern Okinawa prefecture to take shelter in shelters, but it was lifted minutes later.

This attempted launch came just hours after Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo concluded their first trilateral summit since 2019.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday that a new satellite launch “would harm regional and global peace and stability.”

Experts say spy satellites could improve North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly on South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict.

Kim met with President Vladimir Putin in Russia last September, and Putin later suggested his country could help Pyongyang build satellites.

Both Seoul and Washington have accused Pyongyang of shipping weapons to Moscow, with South Korea saying earlier this year that Pyongyang had sent thousands of containers of weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine.

A group of Russian engineers entered North Korea to help prepare for the launch, Yonhap news agency reported Sunday, citing a government official.