North Korean spy satellite explodes mid-air after launch

Politics

By Ryan King

North Korea’s attempt to blast a second spy satellite into orbit went up in flames not long after takeoff on Monday, the hermit nation’s state news agency confirmed.

Pyongyang’s botched rocket launch came from its northwestern space center around the time of China, Japan, and South Korea’s first trilateral meeting in over four years.

The hermit nation claims it first successfully launched a spy satellite last year.

North Korean officials blamed the setback on an air blast issue during the first stage of the flight, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency which described it as a “reconnaissance satellite.”

US officials have voiced concerns that North Korea’s satellite launches are a ploy to help it bolster its long-range ballistic missiles.

The failure marks a setback in North Korea’s effort to conduct surveillance against the US, South Korea, and Japan.

Despite international pressure against such launches, North Korea has maintained that it reserves the right to shoot satellites into space and test missiles.

South Korea and Japan quickly condemned Pyongyang for the launch, with Seoul’s Unification Ministry ripping it as “a provocation that seriously threatens our and regional security.”

Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara decried the move as “a serious challenge to the entire world.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has long been dependent on close ties to China, due to the myriad of sanctions imposed on it by the West.

The launch attempt is seemingly an unusual provocative action as China sought to make diplomatic inroads with Japan and South Korea after years of strife.

Later in the day Monday, a spokesperson for North Korea’s foreign ministry lashed out after Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo reaffirmed their desire for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

“Hostile acts of infringing upon our inviolable national sovereignty will never be tolerated,” the spokesperson said, per KCNA.

“Denuclearization on the Korean peninsula means a power vacuum and hastened war,” a press release posted by the state-run news agency further added.

The last trilateral meeting of its kind between China, Japan, and South Korea took place in 2019 in Seoul.

The recent meeting was intended to help shore up security cooperation in the region.