The “dangerous military acts by the U.S. and its vassal forces” compel North Korea to secure “a reliable reconnaissance and information means,” Ri Pyong Chol, vice chairman of the North’s Central Military Commission, said on Monday, revealing the plan to launch the North’s “military reconnaissance satellite No. 1.”
North Korea’s space and ICBM programs are closely interlocked.
In 2012, months after Mr. Kim took power, North Korea launched a rocket that it said carried a satellite. In a major embarrassment to the young leader, the rocket disintegrated moments after launching. But eight months later, another North Korean rocket flew as far as the Philippines. North Korea last claimed to have launched a satellite in 2016, when its rocket also flew over the sea near the Philippines.
None of these rockets were believed to be carrying a sophisticated satellite. But their launches showed that the North was making progress in building a rocket powerful enough to carry a satellite into orbit or a warhead on an intercontinental range.
The country conducted its first ICBM test in 2017.
North Korea stepped up its space and ICBM programs after Mr. Kim’s diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump collapsed in 2019.
When it tested rockets off its east coast in February and March last year, it claimed to have done so to prepare to launch a satellite. But South Korea accused the North of testing a rocket for its new Hwasong-17 ICBM. In November, the North conducted its first successful test of the Hwasong-17.
In December, the country conducted a ground test of a new solid-fuel booster rocket, a major upgrade in the North’s ICBM program because solid-fuel missiles are faster to launch and harder to intercept. In the same month, North Korea launched rockets that the South called missile tests but the North said were tests of satellite-launching technologies.
In April, North Korea conducted the first flight test of the Hwasong-18, its first solid-fuel ICBM.
Choe Sang-Hun reported from Seoul, and Motoko Rich from Tokyo.