North Korea vows 2nd spy satellite launch attempt

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SEOUL (AP) — High-ranking North Korean officials have vowed to push ahead with a second attempt to launch a spy satellite, calling their country’s first failed launch last month “the most serious” shortcoming this year and sharply criticizing responsible, state media reported on Monday.

In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite crashed shortly after liftoff, dealing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s attempt to build a space-based surveillance system to better monitor United States and South Korea.

The failed launch and North Korea’s efforts to modernize its arsenal were discussed at length at a three-day meeting of the ruling party, which ended on Sunday with Kim and other top officials in attendance.

A lengthy dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency about the meeting did not clearly indicate who spoke, but claimed that a report from the meeting “harshly criticized the officials who irresponsibly carried out preparations for the satellite launch.”

The report sets out tasks for officials and scientists to learn the lessons of the failed launch, find the cause of the rocket crash and make a successful launch in a short period of time, according to KCNA.

He did not say exactly when North Korea might attempt a second launch. But South Korea’s spy agency previously told lawmakers that it may take North Korea “more than several weeks” to determine what went wrong in the failed launch.

North Korean monitoring groups have not reported any purges or firings of scientists or others involved in the failed launch.

A spy satellite is among several high-tech military assets that Kim has publicly vowed to acquire to counter what he calls US-led hostility. Other weapons systems that Kim wants to possess are a multiple-warhead missile, a nuclear submarine, a solid-propellant ICBM and a hypersonic missile.

Since early 2022, North Korea has carried out more than 100 missile tests, some of which were related to developing a spy satellite and other powerful weapons on Kim’s wish list.