North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends an enlarged plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, which was held between June 16 and 18, at the party’s headquarters in Pyongyang, North Korea
Top North Korean officials vowed to push for a second attempt to launch a spy satellite as they called their country’s first, and failed, launch last month “the most serious” shortcoming this year and harshly criticized those responsible, state media reported Monday.
In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite crashed soon after liftoff, posing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to acquire a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the United States and South Korea.
The failed launch and North Korean efforts to modernize its weapons arsenal were discussed extensively at a three-day ruling party meeting that ended Sunday, with the presence of Kim and other top officials.
A lengthy Korean Central News Agency dispatch on the meeting didn’t clearly say who spoke, but said a report to the meeting “bitterly criticized the officials who irresponsibly conducted the preparations for (the) satellite launch.”
The report set forth tasks for officials and scientists to learn the lessons of the failed launch, find what caused the rocket’s crash and make a successful launch in a short span of time, KCNA said.
It didn’t say exactly when North Korea might attempt a second launch. But South Korea’s spy agency earlier told lawmakers that it would take likely take “more than several weeks” for North Korea to determine what went wrong in the failed launch.
North Korea monitoring groups haven’t reported any purges or dismissals of scientists or others involved in the failed launch.
A spy satellite is among several high-tech military assets Kim has publicly vowed to acquire to cope with what he calls U.S.-led hostility. Other weapons systems Kim wants to possess are a multi-warhead missile, a nuclear submarine, a solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile and a hypersonic missile.
Since the start of 2022, North Korea has carried out more than 100 missile tests, some of which were related to developing a spy satellite and other powerful weapons on Kim’s wish list.
During the meeting, Politburo members also analyzed the “extremely deteriorating security situation” in the region caused by the “reckless war moves” of North Korea’s rivals, the report said, apparently referring to the expanded U.S.-South Korea military drills.
The United States and South Korea have been expanding their military drills in response to North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal and warn that any attempt to use nuclear weapons would result in the end of Kim’s government.
The Politburo members set down unspecified “important tasks” for strengthening solidarity with countries that are “opposed to the U.S. brigandish strategy for world supremacy,” KCNA said.
North Korea has pushed to boost relations with Russia, including defending its military action in Ukraine. It says Russia is protecting itself against the West’s “hegemonic policy.” HYUNG-JIN KIM & KIM TONG-HYUNG, SEOUL, MDT/AP
