Category: North Korea

It is pretty clear that the Kim regime came clean on the failed space launch in order to legitimize North Korea as having a space program instead of a front to improve their ICBM capabilities:

This photo released Thursday by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency shows its Chollima-1 rocket, carrying a spy satellite, takes off from an undisclosed location in North Korea the previous day. Yonhap

North Korea’s unusually prompt admission of the failure of its purported reconnaissance satellite launch shows the regime’s effort to characterize the project as a scientific endeavor and not part of its missile program as suspected by Seoul, Washington, Japan and many other governments, according to experts, Thursday.

Less than three hours after Wednesday’s failed rocket launch, North Korea admitted the failure and vowed in a message to the world to step up efforts to place a new one in orbit soon, although it did not disclose the botched attempt to its own people.

“The regime appeared to highlight that it has the technology required for a satellite launch and it is sincere about that effort, providing a counterargument against claims that it was just part of its weapons program,” Cha Du-hyeogn, a senior researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank, said. 

“North Korea would need to justify the rocket test as some countries are expected to push for additional sanctions or resolutions through the U.N. Security Council.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I don’t think you needed to have a spy agency tell you that Kim Jong-un is in poor health when anyone with two eyes can see he is overweight and does not move well:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks to a spy satellite launch committee in footage broadcast by the state-controlled Korean Central Television on May 16. A pack of cigarettes and an ashtray flank him on the desk. [YONHAP]

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told a parliamentary committee that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un suffers from multiple health problems tied to his hard drinking and smoking habits, a People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker told reporters Wednesday.  
   
According to Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, who serves as the executive secretary of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, the spy agency briefed lawmakers on Kim’s current state of health and said the North Korean leader likely suffers from insomnia and other ”serious sleeping disorders.”  
   
The NIS also told the committee that the leader is “importing large quantities of foreign cigarettes, such as Marlboro and Dunhill, and high-end liquor,” according to the PPP lawmaker. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but something of interest is that the NIS estimates that Kim Jong-un weighs 308 pounds.

North Korea much anticipated space launch of supposedly domestically produced reconnaissance satellite ended in failure:

An apparent part of a purported North Korean space launch vehicle is seen in waters some 200 kilometers west of the southwestern island of Eocheong on May 31, 2023, in this photo provided by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Yonhap)

North Korea fired what it claims to be a “space launch vehicle” southward Wednesday, but it fell into the Yellow Sea after an “abnormal” flight, the South Korean military said, in a botched launch that defied international criticism and warnings.

The North confirmed the failure, saying its new “Chollima-1” rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite, “Malligyong-1,” fell into the sea due to the “abnormal starting of the second-stage engine,” according to its official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It plans to conduct a second launch as soon as possible, the KCNA said. 

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from Tongchang-ri on the North’s west coast at 6:29 a.m. and the projectile fell into waters some 200 kilometers west of the South’s southwestern island of Eocheong following its flight over the waters far west of the border island of Baengnyeong.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but what is most interesting about this failed launch is that North Korea’s state media the KCNA actually admitted to it at least in their English language reporting. The KCNA also said that North Korea vowed to launch the rocket again. However, the last time they had a major failure of a space launch was all the way back in 2012 and it took them 8 months before they successfully launched again.

Overall though this is pretty embarrassing for the Kim regime considering South Korea just last week put 8 satellites into orbit using a domestically produced rocket. With that said these failed launches are not always failures if you know what went wrong and can fix it on the next launch. We will see probably in the coming months if North Korea learned from this failure.

It makes me wonder how many other underground Christian groups are operating in North Korea?:

st as they had every Sunday at 5 a.m., the five Christians gathered at the farmhouse for prayer and Bible study. But this time the police were waiting for them. 

Tipped off by an informant, authorities arrested the believers on charges of believing in God, a crime in a country where all religion is illegal – except for the reverence everyone is required to show for the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, and its past leaders, his father and grandfather.

Sources told Radio Free Asia’s Korean Service that the Christians, arrested on April 30, are relatives who met weekly at the farmhouse in Tongam village, outside Sunchon city in South Pyongan province, in central North Korea.

“At the site of the worship service, the police retrieved dozens of Bible booklets and arrested all in attendance,” a resident of the province told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Radio Free Asia

You can read more at the link.

Just think that for housing this is about as good as it gets for most people in North Korea:

North Korea has held a ceremony to mark the completion of building another housing district in Pyongyang as part of the country’s project to construct 50,000 units of new homes in the capital by 2025, state media reported Monday.

The North held the ceremony to celebrate the completion of the construction of new residential areas in the Taephyong district in Pyongyang on Sunday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The Taephyong district in western Pyongyang is located near Mangyongdae, the birthplace of North Korea’s late founder Kim Il-sung, also the grandfather of the current leader Kim Jong-un.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like Kim Jong-un is making sure we are building up to another “crisis” on the peninsula with his expected space launch:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected the country’s first military reconnaissance satellite and gave the green light for its next action plan, Pyongyang’s state media said Wednesday, adding that the satellite is “ready for loading” on a rocket. 

Kim made the on-site inspection to the Non-permanent Satellite Launch Preparatory Committee a day earlier to check the overall status of the spy satellite and approved of its “future action plan,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in a move that signals the launch could be imminent.

“After acquainting himself in detail with the work of the committee, he inspected the military reconnaissance satellite No. 1 which is ready for loading after undergoing the final general assembly check and space environment test,” it said in an English-language dispatch.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Considering North Korea’s stated commitment to expanding its nuclear arsenal this news should not be surprising:

Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates North Korea continues to expand and refurbish its Yongbyon nuclear complex, reinforcing concerns the country is acting on leader Kim Jong-un’s recent call for an “exponential” increase in its nuclear arsenal, 38 North, a U.S. think tank, said Friday.

The report based on satellite imagery taken April 20 said significant construction and improvement activities have been detected throughout the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, particularly around the Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR), the 5 MWe Reactor and within the uranium conversion area.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.