(Seoul) North Korea announced on Sunday that it had conducted a new test for the development of a reconnaissance satellite.
Posted at 6:01 p.m.
The test was carried out on Saturday, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said in a two-paragraph dispatch, released a few days before the presidential election in South Korea.
The South Korean military had already announced on Saturday that it believed the new test was a new ballistic missile launch by the North, the latest in a series of launches this year.
“The National Aerospace Development Authority (NADA) of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, official name of North Korea) and the Academy of Defense Sciences conducted another important test on Saturday with the aim of developing a satellite of recognition,” KCNA wrote in its English-language dispatch on Sunday.
“With this test, NADA has confirmed the reliability of the satellite’s data transmission and reception system, as well as its command system and various ground control systems,” according to KCNA.
Hypersonic missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles, Pyongyang tested a series of weapons in January and last week launched what the regime called a component of a “reconnaissance satellite” – Seoul for its part spoke of a new ballistic missile launch.
Despite harsh international sanctions imposed on it over its nuclear program, Pyongyang has rejected US offers for talks since talks broke down in 2019 between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
Instead of relying on diplomacy, North Korea stepped up military modernization and warned in January that it could lift its self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile and missile testing. nuclear weapons.