North Korea’s spy satellite launch fails as rocket falls into the sea
SEOUL — North Korea’s attempt to put the country’s first spy satellite into space failed Wednesday in a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to boost his military capabilities as tensions with the U.S. and South Korea rise.
After an unusually quick admission of failure, North Korea vowed to conduct a second launch after learning what went wrong with its rocket liftoff. It suggests that Kim remains determined to expand his arsenal and apply more pressure on Washington and Seoul while diplomacy is stalled.
South Korea and Japan briefly urged residents to take shelter during the launch.
The South Korean military said it was salvaging an object presumed to be part of the crashed North Korean rocket in waters 124 miles west of the southwestern island of Eocheongdo. Later, the Defense Ministry released photos of a white metal cylinder it described as a suspected rocket part.
A satellite launch by North Korea is a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the country from conducting any launch based on ballistic technology. Observers say North Korea’s previous satellite launches helped improve its long-range missile technology. North Korean long-range missile tests in recent years have demonstrated a potential range that could include all of the continental U.S., but outside experts say that North Korea still has some work to do to obtain functioning nuclear missiles.
The newly developed Chollima-1 rocket lifted off at 6:37 a.m. from the North’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in the northwest, carrying the Malligyong-1 satellite. The rocket crashed off the Korean peninsula’s western coast after it lost thrust following the separation of its first and second stages, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korea’s recent resumption of missile tests underscores its resolve to win recognition as a nuclear state and receive outside concessions.
South Korea’s military said the rocket had “an abnormal flight” before it fell in the water. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said no object was believed to have reached space.
North Korean media said the country’s space agency would investigate what it calls “the serious defects revealed” by the launch and conduct a second launch as soon as possible.
“It is impressive when the North Korean regime actually admits failure, but it would be difficult to hide the fact of a satellite launch failure internationally, and the regime will likely offer a different narrative domestically,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “This outcome also suggests that Pyongyang may stage another provocation soon, in part to make up for today’s setback.”
Adam Hodge, a spokesperson at the U.S. National Security Council, said in a statement that Washington strongly condemned the North Korean launch because it used banned ballistic missile technology, raised tensions and risked destabilizing security in the region and beyond.
North Korea’s recent barrage of missile tests is raising a question: How does the country pay for the tests?
The U.N. imposed economic sanctions on North Korea over its previous satellite and ballistic missile launches but has not responded to recent tests because China and Russia, permanent Security Council members now locked in confrontations with the U.S., have blocked attempts to toughen sanctions.
Seoul’s military said it boosted military readiness in coordination with the U.S., and Japan said it prepared to respond to any emergency. The U.S. said it would take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and the defense of South Korea and Japan.
Seoul, South Korea’s capital, issued alerts over public loudspeakers and cellphone text messages telling residents to prepare for evacuation after the launch was detected, and Japan activated a missile-warning system for Okinawa prefecture in the country’s southwest, in the rocket’s suspected path.
“Please evacuate into buildings or underground,” the Japanese alert said.
South Korea’s spy agency says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s disclosure of his daughter in recent public events was likely an attempt to show his people that one of his children would one day inherit his power.
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Japan planned to keep missile-defense systems deployed to its southern islands and in southwestern waters until June 11, which is the end of North Korea’s announced launch window.
KCNA didn’t provide details of the rocket and the satellite beyond their names. But experts earlier said North Korea would probably use a liquid-fueled rocket, as it has done previously.
Though it plans a fuller investigation, North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration attributed the failure to “the low reliability and stability of the new-type engine system applied to [the] carrier rocket” and “the unstable character of the fuel,” according to KCNA.
On Tuesday, Ri Pyong Chol, a top North Korean official, said the nation needed a space-based reconnaissance system to counter escalating security threats from South Korea and the United States.
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However, the spy satellite disclosed by state media earlier didn’t appear to be sophisticated enough to produce high-resolution imagery. Some outside experts said it may still be able to detect troop movements and large targets such as warships and warplanes.
Recent commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Sohae launch center showed active construction indicating that Pyongyang plans to launch more than one satellite. In his Tuesday statement, Ri also said the country would test “various reconnaissance means” to monitor moves by the U.S. and its allies in real time.
With three to five spy satellites, North Korea could build a space-based surveillance system that allows it to monitor the Korean peninsula in near-real time, according to Lee Choon-geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
The satellite is one of several high-tech weapons systems that Kim has publicly vowed to introduce. Other weapons on his wish list include a multi-warhead missile, a nuclear submarine, a solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile and a hypersonic missile. In his visit to the space agency in mid-May, Kim emphasized the strategic significance of a spy satellite in North Korea’s standoff with the U.S. and South Korea.
The U.S. will increase its deployment of weapons such as fighter jets and bombers to the Korean Peninsula amid the North’s growing nuclear threat.
Easley, the professor, said Kim has probably increased pressure on his scientists and engineers to launch the spy satellite as rival South Korea successfully launched its first commercial-grade satellite aboard the domestically built Nuri rocket last month.
South Korea is expected to launch its first spy satellite later this year, and analysts say Kim probably wants his country to launch its spy satellite before the South to reinforce his military credentials at home.
After repeated failures, North Korea successfully put its first satellite into orbit in 2012 and the second one in 2016. The government said both were Earth-observation satellites launched under its peaceful space development program, but many foreign experts believed both were developed to spy on rivals.
Observers say there has been no evidence that the satellites have ever transmitted imagery back to North Korea.
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