North Korean Leader Orders Launch of First Spy Satellite Amid Regional Tensions: State Media

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul, on April 13, 2023. - North Korea fired a ballistic missile on April 13, Seoul's military said, prompting Japan to briefly issue a seek shelter warning to residents of the northern Hokkaido region. Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images

North Korea’s leader has ordered that the launch of his country’s first military spy satellite proceed “as planned” to ensure its military effectiveness amid regional tensions, the state-run media reported on April 19.

During his visit to the North’s aerospace agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country’s military reconnaissance satellite had been completed and urged officials to speed up final preparations for its launch.

Kim also ordered the future deployment of “several reconnaissance satellites” on different orbits, state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He did not specify the date for the satellite launch.

He said that having an operational military reconnaissance satellite would be crucial for North Korea to cope with the “most hostile rhetoric and explicit action” by the United States and South Korea.

North Korea conducted the final-stage test of the spy satellite last year to evaluate the capabilities of satellite photography and data transmission system.

At the time, KCNA released black-and-white photos of South Korea’s cities of Seoul and Incheon, which, when enlarged, showed areas surrounding the South Korean presidential office in Seoul.

US, South Korea, Japan Conduct Joint Drill

Kim’s remarks came as the United States, South Korea, and Japan held a joint missile defense exercise in the international waters of the East Sea on April 17 in response to North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats.

Separately, South Korea and the United States launched a 12-day joint air exercise at South Korea’s Gwangju air base on Monday, involving about 110 warplanes and more than 1,400 troops from both sides.

They sought to bolster joint military capabilities after North Korea fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on April 13, which sparked evacuation alerts on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.

Japan’s Defense Ministry subsequently lifted the alerts, saying there was no possibility of the missile landing in or around Hokkaido. Japan condemned the launch and lodged a strong protest against North Korea.

South Korea’s military detected the launch at around 7.23 a.m. (local time) and estimated that the missile had flown about 621 miles before crashing into the sea, Yonhap News Agency reported.

North Korea Warns Of ‘Extreme Horror’

KCNA reported that North Korea tested a new Hwasong-18 ICBM on April 13 under Kim’s guidance. The agency released photos of the launch that showed Kim was accompanied by his wife, daughter, and sister.

The ICBM launch aimed to assess the performance of “the high-thrust solid-fuel engines for multi-stage missiles and the reliability of the stage-jettisoning technology,” KCNA said, without elaborating on the ICBM’s flight distance and maximum altitude.

Kim vowed to make enemies “experience a clearer security crisis, and constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror into them by taking fatal and offensive counter-actions,” according to the report.

A view of a test launch of a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Hwasong-18 at an undisclosed location in this still image of a photo used in a video released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 14, 2023. KCNA via Reuters

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the United States strongly condemned the North’s ICBM launch and is assessing the situation in close coordination with allies and partners.

“This launch is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” Watson said in a statement.

“The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions and instead choose diplomatic engagement,” she added.

Pyongyang had repeatedly condemned the U.S.-South Korean joint military drills as invasion rehearsals even though the allies have said the exercises are defensive in nature.

Representatives from the United States, South Korea, and Japan gathered in Washington last week to discuss the “regularization” of defense exercises to respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

The three countries “reaffirmed that a DPRK nuclear test, if conducted, would be met with a strong and resolute response from the international community,” according to a joint statement.

Efthymis Oraiopoulos contributed to this report.