N KOREA'S ATTEMPT TO PUT SPY SATELLITE IN ORBIT NOT NEW BUT ALARMING, SAYS ANALYSTS

By Nabilah Saleh

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 (Bernama) -- Despite the failure of North Korea’s first attempt to put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit on Wednesday morning, the rouge East Asian nation is not going to give up.

With 10 million residents in the capital city Seoul roused early morning by “wartime alerts” advising an immediate evacuation, the incident underlined the critical possible wide range of threats to national and human security even beyond South Korea.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)’s Strategic Studies and International Relations Senior Lecturer Dr Hoo Chiew Ping told Bernama the latest launch though not significantly new, yet is alarming enough to garner international attention.

“North Korea has provided their rationale for the satellite which is to better monitor United States-South Korea military exercises and US military activities in the region. Military exercises are seen as potential guise for a sudden invasion or attack on North Korea. 

“Last year, some of their state media’s photos of their missile launches were clearly taken by their space satellite. It is an indicator they are improving and getting better at space technologies, including operating satellites,” she said when contacted by the news agency to comment on the launch.

“Their satellite is aimed at the US, South Korea and Japan. However, in my point of view, we should not underestimate them (North Korea) looking at how far they have come since the 1998 Taepodong test -- the first ballistic missile test of North Korea with the rocket falling into the Sea of Japan,” added Hoo, who has good knowledge of the regime.

For geostrategist Prof Dr Azmi Hassan, North Korea has the capability to launch the reconnaissance satellite without using launch vehicles from other nations.

“Even though we are not at war with other countries, but military satellites are used for reconnaissance and their optics are much better than the Earth observation. 

“Malaysians should be aware of its capabilities or what they termed as ‘spying’, hence it is detrimental to our interests. Not just because North Korea is watching but also because other similar satellites are circulating in the orbit,” said the Senior Fellow of the Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research (NASR).

North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration launched the military reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 using the newly developed space launch vehicle Chollima-1, according to North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea admitted its attempt to put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit on Wednesday morning had failed, vowing that it would conduct another launch “as soon as possible.”

The launch was conducted at 6.27 am local time at the Sohae Satellite launching station in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongyang province.

Earlier, Yonhap news agency reported Washington denounced North Korea's launch calling it a "brazen violation" of multiple United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also "strongly" condemned the launch and reiterated his call for Pyongyang to cease such acts and to "swiftly" resume dialogue for peace, his spokesperson said in a statement earlier today.

-- BERNAMA