North Korea says military satellite key to countering US ‘space militarisation’
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North Korea failed twice to place a spy satellite in orbit, in May and August, and has vowed to try again as early as October.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL – North Korea’s spy satellite programme
Researcher Ri Song Jin, whom KCNA described as being from North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration, accused the US of seeking greater military hegemony in Asia by expanding its space force, in an article titled “US space force deployment aimed at pre-emptive aggression war”.
The researcher singled out a recent trip by the US Space Force commander to Tokyo, and the deployment of a Space Force component in South Korea, where its members took part in joint military drills for the first time in 2023.
Such moves were “nothing but a camouflaged curtain to cover up the scenario for pre-emptive attacks on the anti-US and independent countries”, the researcher said, mentioning North Korea, China and Russia.
“Now that the US is getting hell-bent on space militarisation with a pre-emptive nuclear attack as its ultimate target by massively introducing space force into the Korean peninsula and its vicinity”, the researcher said, “space development, including a military reconnaissance satellite, is an indispensable strategic option for guaranteeing the security interests and right to existence of the DPRK”.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
North Korea failed twice to place a spy satellite in orbit
In September, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toured Russia’s most modern space launch centre
In another KCNA dispatch, an international affairs commentator named Ra Jong Min denounced Canada’s planned dispatch of military ships, aircraft and personnel for “Operation Neon”, which is aimed at ensuring implementation of United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur oblast of Russia’s Far East region on Sept 13.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The operation is meant to identify suspected sanctions evasions at sea, including ship-to-ship transfers of fuel and other banned activities.
The commentator accused Canada of “jumping into fire with brushwood on its back” due to “blind belief in its American master” despite the ever-growing possibility of a military conflict on the Korean peninsula. REUTERS
