North blames 'irresponsible' officials for failed launch

North Korea

Published: 19 Jun. 2023, 17:36 Updated: 19 Jun. 2023, 17:57

North blames 'irresponsible' officials for failed launch

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seen attending a meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang over the weekend in this footage released by the state-controlled Korean Central Television on Monday. [YONHAP]

North Korea’s leadership blamed “irresponsible” officials for Pyongyang’s failed attempt to launch a spy satellite into orbit last month, calling it the regime’s “most serious” shortcoming this year, even as they vowed to try again at an unspecified time, state media reported Monday.

The North launched a space launch vehicle carrying a military reconnaissance satellite on May 31, but the rocket failed during second-stage separation and crashed into the Yellow Sea, where part of it was retrieved by the South Korean military on Thursday.

In an English-language report, the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that the 8th Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party held a three-day plenary meeting from Friday to Sunday with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance to discuss the failed satellite launch and rising regional tensions.

A report submitted to the meeting “bitterly criticized the officials who irresponsibly conducted the preparations for [the] satellite launch,” KCNA reported.

The regime’s officials and scientists were ordered to learn from the failed launch, determine what led the rocket to fail, and conduct a successful satellite launch in a short timeframe, KCNA said.

While the KCNA report did not specify the timing of the next satellite launch attempt, it made clear the North would not abandon its ambition to develop a space reconnaissance system that could enable the regime to better monitor its foes.

A spy satellite has long been on the North Korean leader’s wish list of sophisticated military assets, having been first mentioned during his speech at the 8th Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party held in January 2021.

Other items on Kim’s wish list included “miniaturized and tactical” nuclear weapons, “super-large hydrogen bombs,” mid-to-long range cruise missiles, anti-aircraft rocket systems, heavy tanks, howitzers, multiple-warhead missiles, new types of ballistic missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and “hypersonic gliding flight warheads.”

The North has launched more than 100 ballistic and cruise missiles since the start of 2022, including its longest-range Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in November last year and its first solid-fuel ICBM, Hwasong-18, in April.

One missile launched in December last year was a test ahead of the recent space rocket launch attempt, and state media released blurry black-and-white photos it said had been taken from a test satellite on the rocket.

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, claimed at the time that the regime would launch its first spy satellite in April, more than a month before the attempted launch eventually took place, and that a more advanced camera would be installed on a satellite.

The capabilities of the North’s satellite reconnaissance technology remain unknown, with the Malligyong-1 satellite that was presumably mounted on the Chollima-1 space launch vehicle having crashed into the sea along with the rocket when it failed.

Officials from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) who earlier briefed the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee said it would likely take “more than several weeks” for the North to understand why its first space rocket failed before it tries to launch another one.

The NIS also told lawmakers that the failure of the rocket’s second-stage separation was likely because the North rushed launch preparations after the South successfully fired its Nuri space vehicle earlier last month.

During the Workers’ Party plenary meeting over the weekend, Politburo members also examined the “extremely deteriorating security situation” in the region caused by the “reckless war moves” of the regime’s enemies, the KCNA said in an apparent reference to South Korea-U.S. military exercises.

The allies staged their largest live-fire artillery drill in six years on Thursday, which was followed the next day by the arrival of the USS Michigan, which is the first U.S. nuclear-powered guided missile submarine in Korea in seven years.

The presence of the submarine is intended to implement the Washington Declaration between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden to enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula and the credibility of the U.S. extended deterrence commitment to South Korea.

KCNA also reported that Politburo members set down “important tasks” for bolstering the regime’s solidarity with countries that are “opposed to the U.S. brigandish strategy for world supremacy.”

The North has recently moved to strengthen its ties with China and Russia, which are both at odds with the United States amid deepening geopolitical tensions.

North Korea has expressed its support for Russian President Vladimir Putin despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the KCNA quoting leader Kim Jong-un as saying that he is willing to “hold hands firmly with Putin” on June 12.

Kim also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for “remarkably strengthening China’s national power and international position” on the latter’s 70th birthday on Thursday.

Kim Yong-chol

The KCNA also reported that Kim Yong-chol, a prominent official formerly in charge of relations with South Korea, had been appointed an alternate member of the Politburo and as an adviser in the Workers' Party's United Front Department, which handles inter-Korean affairs.

Kim previously served as the North's chief negotiator in denuclearization talks with the United States.

He was replaced as head of the United Front Department in June last year, and also removed as a member of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, the North's rubber-stamp parliament, in September.

He was absent from top party posts for almost a year before his Politburo appointment was announced by the KCNA on Monday.

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