North Korea claims success in launching first spy satellite after 3 attempts

Asia World
North Korea successfully placed its first spy satellite in orbit on Tuesday, its space agency said, defying international condemnation from the United States and its allies.

Officials in South Korea and Japan, which first reported the launch, said they could not immediately verify whether a satellite was placed in orbit.

North Korea had earlier notified Japan that it planned to send up a satellite between Wednesday and December 1, after two failed attempts to launch what it called spy satellites earlier this year.

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Citing the North’s National Aerospace Technology Administration, state news agency KCNA said the satellite was launched from the Sohae satellite launch facility at 10.42pm and entered orbit at 10.54pm.

The space agency will soon send up multiple spy satellites to continue securing surveillance capabilities over South Korea and other regions of interest to North Korea’s armed forces, KCNA reported.

Tuesday’s launch would be the first since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met Vladimir Putin at Russia’s modern space facility in September for a summit where the Russian president promised to help Pyongyang build satellites.

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North Korea calls botched military satellite launch its ‘gravest failure’

North Korea calls botched military satellite launch its ‘gravest failure’

South Korean officials have said the latest launch attempt is likely to have incorporated technical aid from Moscow as part of a growing partnership that has seen North Korea send millions of artillery shells to Russia.

Russia and North Korea have denied such arms deals, but are publicly promising deeper cooperation.

“The launch is another flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” said deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood.