North Korea announced the failure of a spy satellite launch after South Korean military officials reported on Monday (27.05.2024) that Pyongyang had launched a projectile and “fragments” were detected in the sea. The state news agency KCNA quoted the deputy director of the National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) as saying that “the new rocket carrying the satellite exploded in mid-flight during the combustion of the first stage, resulting in a failed launch.”
According to the South Korean military, it took North Korea just over 90 minutes to report the failure of the space rocket, which was launched at around 10:44 PM local time (15:44 CET) on Monday. Only two minutes after detecting the launch, South Korean radars again detected the projectile “as a large group of fragments over North Korean waters,” indicating that the rocket failed in mid-flight. Japanese alert systems also momentarily activated in Okinawa.
Pyongyang has experienced yet another failure in its space program, following two unsuccessful launches of the Chollima-1 rocket in the spring and summer of 2023. However, in November, they finally succeeded in launching the projectile and placing their first spy satellite, the Malligyong-1, into low Earth orbit. North Korea has announced plans to launch three more “Malligyong” spy satellites in 2024, and they have already successfully placed a second satellite into orbit last month.
While North Korea claims that the Malligyong-1 satellite launched in November is functioning successfully, this assertion has been called into question by South Korean intelligence. The South Korean National Intelligence Service collected and analyzed the remnants of one of Pyongyang’s failed launches from early last year, and determined that they had no military utility.
It is believed that the key to the success of the November launch was the involvement of Russia, which has greatly strengthened its ties with North Korea after a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in September 2023. Multiple United Nations resolutions prohibit North Korea, which possesses nuclear weapons, from conducting ballistic missile tests. In a statement from the US Indo-Pacific Command, the US military called the launch a “blatant violation” of these resolutions and stated that it escalates tensions.