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Satellite facility in Tongchang-ri, North Korea (photo taken on 30 May)
Photo: Planet Labs PBC/AP
There have been rumors and warnings for days. Now North Korea has had to announce the failed launch of a launch vehicle with a military reconnaissance satellite. She had "crashed into the sea," reported the North Korean state news agency KCNA.
"The new satellite launch vehicle 'Cheollima-1' has sunk in the West Sea," the agency reported, using the Korean name for the Yellow Sea. The projectile had "lost its momentum due to an abnormal start of the two-stage engine".
The South Korean news agency Yonhap had previously reported, citing the South Korean General Staff, that the projectile had disappeared from the radar earlier than expected. The army is checking whether it exploded or crashed.
Despite the technical defect, the reactions are sometimes sharp. The U.S. government has condemned North Korea's launch of the multi-stage missile "in the strongest possible terms." In this alleged space launch, technologies were used that are directly related to North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile program," the National Security Council said on Tuesday evening (local time). De-escalation by diplomatic means is still possible, but Pyongyang must immediately stop its provocative actions.
The missile launch increases tensions in the region and could destabilize the security situation, it said. "The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and the defense of our Republic of Korea and its Japanese allies."
Announcement in Seoul causes a stir
After the launch of the rocket, South Korea's capital and the southern Japanese region of Okinawa had briefly sounded the alarm. The city of Seoul, where sirens were wailing, sent a warning to all mobile phones, calling on the population to prepare for a possible evacuation and to "bring children and the elderly to safety first". A short time later, the Ministry of the Interior announced that the warning disseminated by the city administration had been "incorrectly published".
North Korea announced on Tuesday that it would launch a spy satellite into space in June. This is needed to track military movements of the US and its allies in real time, KCNA reported, citing a senior military official.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un inspected his country's first military spy satellite in mid-May and gave the green light for the "future action plan". In 2021, he had described the development of a military spy satellite as one of the central projects in the defense sector.
Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula have recently escalated dramatically. The communist leadership in Pyongyang repeatedly threatens a military escalation in the region. In the face of North Korea's ongoing provocations, South Korea and the United States intensified their cooperation in the field of defense.
jok/AFP