The spy satellite named Malligyong-1 was launched on a new carrier rocket, Chollima-1, on late 21 November, 2023, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The satellite, which is a first successful spy satellite by North Korea after two previous attempts, was launched from the Sohae satellite launch facility near Tongchang-ri, in northwest of the country.
It successfully entered orbit.
A UN Security Council resolution prohibits North Korea from using ballistic missile technology like the one used for the launch.
The satellite, which will improve North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, is to monitor the US and South Korea following the escalation of tensions between them and President Kim Jong Un.
President Kim personally monitored the launch which the US, Japan and South Korea have “strongly condemned.”
North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration failed in its quest to launch a spy satellite into orbit in August, 2023 due to an error in the emergency blasting system in the third-stage flight.
The rocket broke into pieces before falling into the Yellow Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
A first attempt was on 31 May, 2023.
The satellite, believed to be a military reconnaissance satellite, which was launched from the Sohae Satellite Launch Station, failed to reach orbit and fell into the sea.
Korean Central News Agency said the country lost a Malligyong-1 satellite soon after liftoff because the second stage of the launcher, Chollima-1 rocket, developed a problem.
South Korean military retrieved remnants of the North Korean failed rocket in the southwest island of Eocheongad, 200 kilometres (125 miles) away.
North Korea first successfully launched a satellite in 2012. It launched a second in 2016. Both are Earth Observation satellites in Low Earth orbit.
The latest attempt is the first spy satellite the country is launching and it is not clear if Russia assisted in the event after President Kim’s recent state visit to Moscow and President Putin’s pledge of future mutual co-operation between the two countries.
