North Korea announced on Wednesday morning that it had tried to launch a “military reconnaissance satellite”, but that it had “damaged at sea”, after triggering a missile alert in Japan and an erroneous evacuation order. in Seoul.
“The new satellite-carrying rocket Chollima-1 crashed into the West Sea”, the Korean name for the Yellow Sea, explained the state news agency KCNA, explaining this failure by “a loss of thrust due to abnormal start of the second stage engine, after separation of the first stage during normal flight”.
The projectile “quickly disappeared from radar before reaching its expected point of fall”, according to the South Korean army, quoted by the Yonhap agency.
The South Korean military then announced that it had begun recovering “suspected debris” from the aircraft in waters 200 kilometers west of Eocheong Island, off central China. South Korea.
The shooting, carried out early on Wednesday, caused confusion in Japan and the South Korean capital, Seoul, where sirens sounded, accompanied by a critical emergency alert sent by the city hall to all mobile phones in the city. at 6:41 a.m. (5:41 p.m. Tuesday in Montreal) and accompanied by a thunderous bell.
“Children First”
The alert, which urged residents to prepare for an evacuation by putting “children and the elderly first”, was later canceled, with the Home Office citing an error.
According to the South Korean army, quoted by Yonhap, the rocket did indeed fly over the Yellow Sea, but without threatening the Seoul metropolitan area.
A missile alert had also been issued in the Japanese department of Okinawa, in the south of the country, calling on the population to take shelter. It was also lifted by the government, 30 minutes later.
South Korea called the craft a suspected “spy satellite”, while Japan, through its prime minister, Fumio Kishida, suspected a “possible ballistic missile”.
The United States condemned the launch, which uses “ballistic missile technology” and which “risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond”, said Adam Hodge, spokesman for the American National Security Council. .
Pyongyang announced on Tuesday that it would fire a spy satellite to “address the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals”.
Although it does not communicate in advance its missile tests, the regime generally gives information on its space programs presented as peaceful, and had warned that this launch would take place between May 31 and June 11.
Missile in disguise?
Tokyo, suspecting the test to be a disguised missile launch, ordered that any projectile aimed at its territory be shot down.
“Kim’s determination [Jong Un] doesn’t stop there,” Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst, told AFP, adding that this latest operation may be a harbinger of “bigger provocations, including the nuclear test we’ve been speculating about for a long time.” .
In 2012 and 2016, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests, calling them satellite launches. Both projectiles had flown over the Okinawa region.
Tokyo and Seoul had condemned the satellite project immediately announced, also invoking United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
“If North Korea does proceed with this launch, it will have to pay the price and bear the suffering it deserves”, had launched the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to specialists, North Korea has no satellites in operation, although it has sent five into space. Three launches failed. As for the other two devices, which have probably been put into orbit, no independent organization has ever picked up their signals, which suggests a malfunction.
Criticizing the recent military maneuvers between Washington and Seoul, a senior North Korean official said on Tuesday that his country felt “the need to develop its means of reconnaissance and information as well as to improve various defensive and offensive weapons”.
For Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, mission success matters less than Pyongyang’s ability to build propaganda discourse and new diplomatic rhetoric around its space capabilities, so to destabilize Seoul and Tokyo.
Since escalating tensions in 2019 with its neighbor, North Korea has accelerated its military development and declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power through its leader, Kim Jong-un.
The latter called for an “exponential” increase in North Korea’s arsenal, including tactical nuclear weapons.