While inspecting North Korea's National Aerospace
Development Administration, Kim said "a lot" of military
reconnaissance satellites would be put into sun-synchronous polar orbit in the
period of a five-year plan announced last year, state news agency KCNA
reported.
"He noted that the purpose of developing and operating
the military reconnaissance satellite is to provide the armed forces of the
DPRK with real-time information on military actions against it by the
aggression troops of the US imperialism and its vassal forces in south Korea,
Japan and the Pacific," the news agency said, Reuters reported.
North Korea appears to be preparing to launch a
reconnaissance satellite.
North Korea says it conducted two tests of satellite systems
on Feb. 27 and March 5. Authorities in South Korea, Japan, and the United
States says the tests involved launches of ballistic missiles.
The launches drew international condemnation and the US
military said on Thursday it had increased surveillance and reconnaissance
collection in the Yellow Sea.
The United States also said it had heightened its ballistic
missile defense readiness after a "significant increase" in North
Korean missile tests.
Kim defended the satellite work as not only about gathering
information but protecting North Korea's sovereignty and national interests,
exercising its legitimate rights to self-defense, and elevating national
prestige, KCNA reported.
"He stressed that this urgent project for perfecting
the country's war preparedness capacity by improving our state's war deterrent
is the supreme revolutionary task, a political and military priority task to
which our Party and government attach the most importance," KCNA said.
The United States and its allies have condemned previous
North Korean space launches as violations of UN Security Council resolutions
that have imposed sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile
programmes.
North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon or its
long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) since 2017, but has
suggested in could resume such tests because talks with the United States are
stalled.
Its latest flurry of missile launches could be groundwork
for a return to ICBM and nuclear bomb tests this year, the US Directorate of
National Intelligence (DNI) said in its annual Worldwide Threat Assessment
released this week.
A satellite launched into orbit would be the first since
2016.
Recent sub-orbital launches, which likely used road-mobile
medium-range ballistic missiles, appeared designed to "pop the key
components of an imagery reconnaissance satellite up to operational altitudes
for a few minutes of testing", 38 North, a US-based monitoring group, said
in a report.
Such components, including satellite stabilization, the
imaging payload, and data transmission may have failed in previous tests and
therefore required additional testing, the group said.
"It remains to be seen how capable any North Korean
imagery satellite would be, the frequency of launches, or how many such
satellites might be maintained in orbit at any one time—all key indicators of
the actual military significance of such satellites," 38 North said.
Regardless, North Korea clearly sees this capability as
having propaganda value and showcasing its technological prowess and effective
leadership, it added.
A launch could make technical contributions to North Korea’s
ICBM capability, depending on what type of rocket booster is used, 38 North
said.
"It may also be the precursor to other more provocative
developments mentioned by Kim, such as the testing of multiple-warhead
missiles, solid-propellant ICBMs, and ICBM-range solid-propellant
submarine-launched ballistic missiles," it said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment