Sister of North’s leader vows successful launch ‘soon’

North Korea

Published: 01 Jun. 2023, 16:23

Sister of North’s leader vows successful launch ‘soon’

Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency on Thursday released this photo of the North's new satellite launch vehicle taking off the previous day at a previously unseen site within the Sohae Satellite Testing Ground in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. The rocket failed mid-flight and crashed into the Yellow Sea. [YONHAP]

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said Pyongyang would soon succeed in launching a working military reconnaissance satellite into orbit even as she admitted that the previous day’s attempt had failed, state media reported Thursday.

The North on Wednesday morning fired what it claimed was a new type of satellite launch vehicle (SLV), named Chollima-1, carrying a military reconnaissance satellite named Malligyong-1.

The North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the same day that the SLV crashed into the sea due to an engine malfunction during second-stage separation, shortly after the projectile vanished from its expected trajectory on South Korean radar systems.

In an English-language statement carried by the KCNA, Kim defended not only Wednesday’s launch attempt but also the regime’s right to self-defense.

Kim claimed that the launch “confirmed once again that the enemies are most afraid of the DPRK’s access to excellent reconnaissance and information means” and that the North “should direct greater efforts to developing reconnaissance means.”

DPRK is the acronym of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

She argued that “if the DPRK’s satellite launch should be particularly censured, the United States and all other countries, which have already launched thousands of satellites, should be denounced” as well.

Kim, who serves as the deputy director of the Workers’ Party Propaganda Department, criticized multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that bar the North from conducting tests of ballistic missile technology, characterizing them as “gangster-like.”

She also expressed certainty “that the DPRK’s military reconnaissance satellite will be correctly put in space orbit in the near future and start its mission.”

Kim also repeated the North’s stance that it was not interested in talks with the United States so long as the latter maintains what she called a “hostile policy” toward the regime.

“We have no content of dialogue and do not feel the necessity of dialogue with the United States and its stooges,” she said, adding the North will persist in its own “way of counteraction in a more offensive attitude” so the regime’s enemies “will have nothing to benefit from the extension of the hostile policy toward the DPRK.”

Kim claimed the regime will make all efforts to “bolster up war deterrence in all-inclusive direction” given “the protracted nature” of tensions with the United States.

The KCNA on Thursday also released photos of the previous day’s failed launch, which revealed new details about the SLV.

The photos not only show the rocket taking off from a new launch site within the Sohae Satellite Testing Ground in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongyan Province, but also that its wide and bulky mounted payload differed considerably from the warheads of most ballistic missiles fired by the North.

The photos have been only made public through the KCNA, whose coverage is directed at audiences outside the North.

According to the agency, the failure of the Chollima-1’s second-stage separation was due to the “instability” of its new engine system and its propellant.

That explanation did not clear up questions about whether the SLV was powered by liquid- or solid-fuel propellant.

The North said it successfully tested a solid-fuel rocket engine in December, followed by a successful launch of its first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, named Hwasong-18, in April. Both were tested at Tongchang-ri.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its forces had already salvaged a white metal cylinder from the sea that it believes was likely one of the components of the fallen SLV.

In comments to reporters on Wednesday after the National Intelligence Service briefed the parliamentary intelligence committee, People Power Party Rep. Yoo Sang-bum relayed the spy agency’s belief that the failure of the SLV’s second-stage separation was the result of “an excessive trajectory adjustment” and launch preparations being rushed after the South successfully fired its Nuri space vehicle last week.

The spy agency also told lawmakers that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un likely attended Wednesday’s SLV launch, Yoo said.

The North Korean projectile marks the first time in seven years that the North has attempted to launch a satellite payload into orbit, and the sixth attempt in its history.

The last was the Kwangmyongsong-4 in February 2016, which the North claimed was an Earth observation satellite.

No transmissions have ever been detected from that satellite, even though experts deemed it entered a stable orbit.

Meanwhile, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted a resolution condemning North Korea’s missile tests for the first time on the same day as the regime’s failed SLV launch attempt.

Adopted at the 107th session of the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee in London on Wednesday, the resolution blasted the launches as a grave threat to the safety of international navigation and urged the North to comply with due regulations, including giving prior notice ahead of missile tests.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]