North Korea announced on May 31 that it had attempted to launch a “military reconnaissance satellite”. The rocket ended its run at sea and triggered an erroneous evacuation order in Seoul.
An attempt to put a North Korean spy satellite into orbit woke the South Koreans with a start on Wednesday, May 31. Around 6:30 am, the sirens sounded and warning messages asked the population to prepare to evacuate. After about 20 minutes of confusion, the authorities explained that it was a mistake. On the North Korean side, the launch failed and the rocket ended up in the sea between China and Korea.
If the South Korean reaction was disproportionate, it can be explained by the fact that launching a rocket uses technology similar to that used to fire a ballistic missile.
Most North Korean long-range missiles consist of two or three stages that must separate in flight like a rocket. This technology was used for Wednesday’s launch. “They tried to fire their first spy satelliteexplains Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center, and they did so by launching a brand new space rocket that appears to be derived from their Hwasong series of missiles. It really reflects what the cold war actors were doing in the late 1950s. They had their long range missile, the R7 for the Soviet Union, and the Atlas for the United States, but they had parallel space programs that used the same technology. And now that the North Koreans are at this level of technology, it seems logical that they want to do the same.”
A fledgling North Korean space program
UN Security Council sanctions prohibit North Korea from using ballistic technology, whether to fire a missile or a rocket. But while the regime is particularly opaque about military activities, it has been relatively transparent with its space program:
“They are contacting the International Maritime Organization asking them to clear areas of the ocean because rocket debris will be falling from the sky. They issue more detailed press releases, even admit failure, which they were reluctant to do for previous launches. They are trying to convey that this is a civilian space program, even if they are launching a military satellite.”
Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centerat franceinfo
Among the objectives of the North Korean space program, there is the spy satellite which is one of Kim Jong-un’s priorities. Theoretically, this should make it possible to obtain more information on the South Korean and American armies. North Korea also hopes to place a satellite in geostationary orbit to have its own telecommunications network.
But as Martyn Willliams, a researcher at the Stimson Center, reminds us, the North Korean program is still in its infancy: “North Korea is obviously a new space power. They managed to put two satellites in orbit but they weren’t working and we saw another failure last week. If North Korea is somehow behind the to countries that can launch into space, it stays ahead of other countries because most don’t have that capability.” The country recently built new facilities dedicated to its space program, a sign that North Korean activity in space is not about to stop.