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Spy satellite launch fails as rocket falls into the sea

North Korea’s attempt to put the country’s first spy satellite into space failed yesterday in a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to boost his military capabilities as tensions with the United States and South Korea rise.

After an unusually quick admission of failure, North Korea vowed to conduct a second launch after learning what went wrong with its rocket liftoff. It suggests Kim remains determined to expand his weapons arsenal and apply more pressure on Washington and Seoul while diplomacy is stalled.

South Korea and Japan briefly urged residents to take shelter during the launch.

The South Korean military said it was salvaging an object

presumed to be part of the crashed North Korean rocket in waters 200 kilometres west of the southwestern island of Eocheongdo. Later, the Defence

Ministry released photographs of a white, metal cylinder it described as a suspected rocket part.

A satellite launch by North

Korea is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that ban the country from conducting any launch based on ballistic technology. Observers say North Korea’s previous satellite launches helped improve its longrange missile technology.

North Korean long-range missile tests in recent years demonstrated a potential range that could reach all of the continental US, but outside experts say the North Korea still has some work to do to obtain functioning nuclear missiles.

The newly developed Chollima-1 rocket was launched at 6.37am at the North’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in the northwest, carrying the Malligyong-1 satellite. The rocket crashed off the Korean Peninsula’s western coast after it lost thrust following the separation of its first and second stages, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

South Korea’s military said the North Korean rocket had ‘‘an abnormal flight’’ before it fell in the water.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that no object was believed to have reached space.

North Korean media said the country’s space agency will investigate what it calls ‘‘the serious defects revealed’’ by the launch and conduct a second launch as soon as possible.

‘‘It is impressive when the North Korean regime actually admits failure, but it would be difficult to hide the fact of a satellite launch failure internationally, and the regime will likely offer a different narrative domestically,’’ Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said. – AP

World

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2023-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281981791970793

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