North Korea logged a second failure at placing a spy satellite into orbit but pledged to try again in what would be a third attempt in less than six months.
Pyongyang loaded and launched the Malligyong-1 reconnaissance satellite on its “new-type carrier rocket, Chollima-1, at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground,” a state media post said about two hours after the rocket launch before 4 a.m. local time Thursday.
The predawn launch came in the first hours of an eight-day window that North Korea had given for the attempt.
“The flights of the first and second stages of the rocket were normal, but the launch failed due to an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight,” the government KCNA news service said in its English report.
The “emergency blasting system” appears to refer to a flight termination system that’s built into the rocket for self-destruction in case of an emergency, analysts said.
KCNA added that North Korea’s space administration would conduct another launch in October, “after thoroughly probing the reason and taking measures.”
North Korea’s inaugural endeavor to place a spy satellite into orbit was on May 31; that rocket lost propelling power because of an "abnormal starting of the second-stage engine," state media said then.
The third attempt could be timed around the nuclear-armed state’s anniversary of the founding of its Workers’ Party, on Oct. 10, according to an official at Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which oversees inter-Korean affairs.
Analysts in Seoul noted that October could be North Korea’s last opportunity this year, ahead of the winter weather that could freeze the rocket’s liquid fuel and oxidizer.
United in protest
The pre-dawn rocket launch marks North Korea’s first provocation of a ballistic nature since the leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan pledged a “new era” of trilateral cooperation at Camp David last week — a direct result of Pyongyang’s swiftly advancing nuclear weapons program.
All three allies protested the failed rocket launch, calling it a breach of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions on the security of the region.
After being briefed on the results of an emergency National Security Council meeting, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol directed officials to share the analysis with U.S. and Japanese counterparts and swiftly implement commitments made at the Camp David summit.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, calling on Pyongyang to cancel its signaled October launch, said the top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan liaised over the phone and are reviewing the issuance of fresh economic sanctions in retaliation.
“Space launch vehicles incorporate technologies that are identical to, and interchangeable with, those used in ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told VOA Korean in a statement, adding that any use of ballistic missile technology runs in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
North Korea’s “recent launch over the Japanese archipelago is a serious and imminent threat to our national security and a serious challenge to the international community as a whole,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said in an emergency news conference, noting that a formal complaint was lodged.
“We are investigating whether it is a satellite or not,” Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters Thursday.
Rushed relaunch
Despite the confidence displayed by North Korea’s latest state media post, the rapid pace of relaunching its spy satellite delivery vehicle appears curious, and the intention behind the ambitious endeavor is under debate.
“It would have taken two to three times longer had North Korea readied a relaunch more accurately, considering each wire, after the failure of its first rocket launch,” said Yang Uk, research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank in Seoul.
“Putting the marker down for October is pretty gutsy. Can’t say I recall them being so specific before,” posted Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear arms control expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Analysts in Seoul have been watching for what success Pyongyang would showcase in time for Sept. 9, the Day of the Foundation of the Republic, one of a handful of important state holidays for North Korea.
In the run-up to Foundation Day last year, leader Kim Jong Un had described North Korea as an “irreversible” nuclear power state, etching into law a series of conditions in which the state would be allowed to pre-emptively use its nuclear weapons.
Thursday’s rocket launch “seems to be politically motivated, driven by a political schedule, without taking into account military objectives or technological readiness,” Yang said.
Others had a different view. “They probably did consider or were aware [of the coming anniversary]. But I don’t think they are so crazy that they would fire up something that’s not ready or they’re not technically confident about,” Kim Dong-yup, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told VOA.
An effort to search and salvage the claimed satellite delivery vehicle has begun in waters near the peninsula, an official of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, or JCS, said Thursday. Talks are underway for U.S. counterparts to comb waters farther out, the official added.
Analysis of the salvaged spy satellite from the first failed launch in May had concluded it had “no military utility,” according to South Korea’s JCS, which explained its imaging capacity was far inferior. JCS said the conclusion was jointly reached between U.S. and South Korean experts.
Lee Juhyun contributed to this story. Some information from Reuters was used in this report.
