According to state media on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that his nation had finished developing its first military surveillance satellite and instructed authorities to proceed with its launch at an unspecified time.
One of Kim’s main goals is to establish a space-based surveillance system in order to strengthen his military might and put pressure on the US to stop what he termed its hostile actions, such as military exercises with South Korea’s allies and international economic sanctions against North Korea.
North Korea has proved it can carry satellites into orbit via previous missile and rocket tests, but many analysts doubt if it has cameras advanced enough to be used for satellite espionage since only low-resolution photographs were made public after previous launches.
Kim said that possessing a functioning military reconnaissance satellite is essential for North Korea to employ its war deterrent properly during his visit to the nation’s aerospace organisation on Tuesday.
According to the official Korean Central News Agency, Kim noted what he called major security concerns presented by “the most hostile rhetoric and explicit action” by the United States and South Korea this year.
Kim said that as of April, “military reconnaissance satellite No. 1” had been constructed and he directed attempts to hasten the last-minute preparations for its launch at an unspecified future date. According to him, North Korea has to launch several satellites in order to fully develop its intelligence-gathering capabilities, according to KCNA.
As recently as last week, North Korea conducted its first test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile with solid fuel that was intended to strike the US mainland as retaliation for joint military drills between the US and its regional allies South Korea and Japan.
Since the beginning of last year, North Korea has conducted nearly 100 missile tests, including roughly 30 this year.
The forces of the US and South Korea have been increasing their joint exercises to strengthen their deterrent against North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats.
In addition to a one-day naval missile defence drill with Japan, the allies this week began a 12-day aerial exercise involving around 110 aeroplanes.
Kim had pledged to create a number of significant weapons systems, including a spy satellite, a solid-propellant ICBM, a nuclear-powered submarine, a hypersonic missile, and a missile with multiple warheads.
Since then, North Korea has tested these weapons, but it’s unclear how close they are to becoming used.
North Korea released black-and-white images of a glimpse of South Korean cities from orbit in December when it launched a test satellite to evaluate its photography and data transmission capabilities.
At the time, several civilian specialists in South Korea opined that the images were too rudimentary to be used for surveillance and that it was likely only possible to identify large targets like naval vessels or on-land military sites.
Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister and a top-ranking North Korean official, swiftly refuted such a claim, arguing that there was no need for using an expensive, high-resolution camera for a single-shot test and that the test satellite instead carried a commercial camera.
Many foreign observers believe North Korea has not yet succeeded in overcoming the last technical obstacles to acquiring operational nuclear missiles, including those to construct miniature warheads for atop missiles and safeguard nukes during atmospheric re-entry.
One of the goals for its spy satellite, according to Kim Jong Un, is to be able to “use pre-emptive military force when the situation demands.”
That demonstrates his intention to connect the spy satellite to the nuclear doctrine of the North, which allows for pre-emptive nuclear attacks.
The KCNA broadcast on Tuesday did not specify potential targets on the US mainland, instead focusing on US military assets including aircraft carriers and long-range bombers that had been stationed in South Korea recently. That may suggest that North Korea intends to utilise its reconnaissance satellites to locate important targets in South Korea, including US military installations, before launching short-range missile attacks on those targets.
According to Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, North Korea is signalling that its military reconnaissance satellites are designed to gather precise location and movement data in real time to enable its missiles and other nuclear-armed weapons to hit targets with accuracy.
He predicted that anytime between May and September, North Korea would likely alert international maritime and communications agencies of its precise launch intentions.
Using a long-range rocket would be necessary to launch a spy satellite into orbit. But since it sees it as a cover for testing its long-range ballistic missile capability, the UN forbids North Korea from conducting such a launch.
In 2012 and 2016, North Korea launched its first and second Earth observation satellites, but according to outside observers, neither one returned any images to the country.
Regarding the launches, the UN imposed sanctions.
Due to Russia’s and China’s opposition to US and other efforts to impose more severe restrictions on North Korea, it has escaped further UN penalties for its recent ballistic missile launches in 2022 and this year.