North Korea said Wednesday that its leader Kim Jong Un examined photos of key American military bases in Guam using its first spy satellite that the country said it had put into orbit.
In response to this launch, claimed by Pyongyang and violating UN resolutions, South Korea has partially suspended a military agreement with its northern neighbor.
Kim Jong Un “viewed aerospace photos of Anderson Air Force Base, Apra Harbor and other key military bases of the US Armed Forces taken from the skies over Guam in the Pacific and received at 9:21 a.m. on November 22.” , North Korea’s KCNA said state agency.
A rocket launched on Tuesday evening followed the planned trajectory “and managed to place the Malligyong-1 satellite into its orbit,” the agency said earlier.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as North Korea is officially known, plans to launch more satellites “in the near future” to strengthen its surveillance capabilities over South Korea, it added.
“Launching a reconnaissance satellite is a legitimate right of the DPRK to strengthen its self-defense capabilities,” KCNA stressed, as the country faces threats from South Korea and the United States.
For its part, the General Staff of the South Korean Army clarified that it was analyzing this launch and could not yet confirm that the satellite had actually been put into orbit. Japan also said it could not confirm this either “at this time.”
Japan’s Defense Ministry is “analyzing” the North Korean launch, Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said on Wednesday, adding that Pyongyang’s rapid development of “its missile technologies and operational capabilities” should neither be “tolerated” nor “neglected.”
China called on all parties concerned on Wednesday to exercise “calm” and “restraint.”
“All affected parties must maintain calm and restraint (…) and do more to reduce tensions,” demanded a Chinese diplomatic spokesman, Mao Ning, to the press.
North Korea had already made two unsuccessful attempts to put a satellite into orbit last May and August.
Agreement partially suspended
South Korea responded by announcing the partial suspension of a military agreement signed with North Korea on September 19, 2018 to reduce tensions along the highly secure inter-Korean border, particularly through the creation of maritime “buffer zones.”
A South Korean government spokesman told AFP that Seoul was unable to directly inform Pyongyang of the suspension of that agreement because “communication lines with North Korea were interrupted.”
The satellite launch was also condemned by the United States, Japan and the United Nations.
“Any North Korean launch that uses ballistic missile technology violates Security Council resolutions,” U.N. chief Antonio Guterres’ deputy spokesman Farhan Haq reminded in a statement.
“Even if they call it a satellite, launching an object that uses ballistic missile technology is clearly a violation of United Nations resolutions,” said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
This shot is “a blatant violation of several United Nations Security Council resolutions, increases tensions and risks destabilizing the region and beyond,” reacted the spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
The launch came after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in September following a meeting with Kim Jong Un that his country could help Pyongyang build satellites.
Seoul and Washington later claimed that Pyongyang was supplying weapons to Russia, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning that military ties between North Korea and Russia were becoming “increasingly numerous and dangerous”.
Experts say the successful orbit of a spy satellite would improve North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly about South Korea, and provide crucial data in the event of a military conflict.
South Korea, in turn, plans to launch its first spy satellite with a SpaceX rocket in November.