Tag: satellite

This would be a provocative action by the U.S. Space Force if they did try and disable North Korea’s supposed spy satellite because it would set a precedent for other countries to take action on U.S. satellites as well:

North Korea lashed out at the United States on Saturday after a U.S. space official hinted at possible disabling of the North’s military spy satellite launched last week, saying that it will take it as “a declaration of war” against the regime.

A spokesperson of the North’s defense ministry issued the statement after Sheryll Klinkel, a strategic communicator at the U.S. Space Command, told a media program in reference to the North’s spy satellite that “a variety of reversible and irreversible means” can be employed to “deny” an adversary’s space and counterspace capabilities. 

Appearing on the Radio Free Asia earlier this week, Klinkel also said that joint force space operations can reduce the effectiveness and lethality of adversary forces across all domains. 

“The U.S. Space Force’s deplorable hostility toward the DPRK’s reconnaissance satellite can never be overlooked as it is just a challenge to the sovereignty of the DPRK, and more exactly, a declaration war against it,” read the English-language statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like North Korea will continue to launch these satellites until they figure out how to do it correctly:

North Korea said Thursday its second attempt to launch a spy satellite has ended in a failure, citing “an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight.” 

Pyongyang said it launched the spy satellite, the Malligyong-1, mounted on a new type of rocket named Chollima-1, but an error occurred during the third stage of the launch, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

North Korea will once again aim to put a satellite into orbit in October, KCNA said, following its first botched attempt in late May.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The North Koreans are claiming that they are restarting their space launch program by launching a reconnaissance satellite:

North Korea conducted an “important test” of a “reconnaissance satellite” to verify the capabilities of its high-definition photographing and data-transmission systems, its state-run news agency said Monday. 

The country’s aerospace and military science organizations conducted the test, according to the Korean Central News Agency. KCNA’s report did not include photographs of the launch but had pictures of Earth from space that it said were taken by cameras “loaded on the reconnaissance satellite.”

“The test is of great significance in developing the reconnaissance satellite,” KCNA claimed in its report.

The communist regime on Sunday launched what South Korea’s military believes was a ballistic missile off its eastern coast around 7:52 a.m. The missile, according to the South’s military, flew about 186 miles at a peak altitude of 385 miles. The Japan Coast Guard also confirmed the launch and its specifications.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It looks like more people are beginning to catch on to my idea that the North Koreans may attempt a satellite launch:

The expert added that a more likely explanation was that the North is feigning a missile launch to press Washington for a renegotiation and would not go forward with the act since too much is at stake. 

Another possibility, according to a South Korean government source who asked not to be named, is that the North is preparing to actually launch a satellite equipped with technology recently brought in from friendly countries like China.

“The last time the North shot up a satellite was in 2016 with the launch of the Kwangmyongsong-4,” the source said. 

“Since then, North Korea has been focusing on obtaining satellite technology through unofficial cooperation with other countries or by hacking, and latest intelligence suggests they have completed a new reconnaissance satellite.”

North Korea maintains a distinction between military testing of its ballistic missiles and that of its satellites, though nuclear experts abroad say the fact that the same type of rockets are used for both purposes makes that difference hollow.

UN Security Council Resolution 1718 – approved unanimously by all members in 2006 – forbids any type of rocket launches from the North, be it for satellite or missile purposes.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but I thought they may attempt a satellite launch to give them plausible deniability they are testing ICBMs and say they have every right to peaceful space exploration. This also gives the Chinese and Russians some cover to shutdown any more sanctions the US may try to impose after the launch through the United Nations.

This becomes a way the Kim regime can increase tensions and put pressure back on the Trump administration with likely little consequences.

A quick take on North Korea's successful satellite launch: https://t.co/qZRO6kKraO

— Stephen Young (@StephenUCS) February 7, 2016

Via a reader link it appears that the North Koreans have not corrected the mistakes from their first satellite launch since this satellite is reportedly tumbling out of control in orbit as well:

The satellite North Korea fired into space on Sunday is “tumbling in orbit” and incapable of functioning in any useful way, a senior U.S. defense official told CNN.

Sunday’s launch of the long-range rocket triggered a wave of international condemnation and prompted strong reaction from an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

North Korea maintained the launch was for scientific and “peaceful purposes.”

South Korea has recovered about 270 pieces of debris, believed to have come from the rocket launch, from the ocean Sunday and is working to analyze the objects, a South Korean Defense Ministry official told CNN.  [CNN]

You can read the rest at the link, but probably more important to the North Koreans is that it appears they have proven that they have perfected their rocket technology with another successful launch.  Over at 38North.org they even have more great analysis about the technical achievement the North Koreans have accomplished with this launch.

The North Koreans have provided the US with some pre-Super Bowl fireworks:

North Korea launched a long-range rocket on Sunday carrying what it has called a satellite, but its neighbors and Washington denounced the launch as a missile test, conducted in defiance of U.N. sanctions and just weeks after a nuclear bomb test.

The U.S. Strategic Command said it had detected a missile entering space and South Korea’s military said the rocket had put an object into orbit, quashing earlier media reports indicating the rocket might have failed in flight.

“Everything we have seen is consistent with a successful repeat of the 2012 (launch),” said U.S. missile technology expert John Schilling, referring to a previous launch of what the North said was a communications satellite.

“But it’s still too early to tell for sure,” said Schilling, who is involved in the “38 North” monitoring project at Johns Hopkins University.

The rocket was launched at around 9:30am Seoul time (7.30 p.m. ET/0030 GMT) in a southward trajectory. Japan’s Fuji Television Network showed a streak of light heading into the sky, taken from a camera at China’s border with North Korea.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but I thought the North Koreans may try and launch this right after the Super Bowl or during halftime in an attempt to garner additional media attention in the US.  The timing today means they will dominate the media cycle until the Super Bowl starts and then this launch will be largely forgotten by most Americans.

Anyway something dangerous about the timing was that the North Koreans fired before their announced launch window by giving a last minute notification to the International Maritime Organization to get aircraft out of the area:

Japanese and South Korean airlines  altered flight paths to avoid possible falling rocket parts. Based on coordinates provided by North Korea to the IMO, the first stage and fairing of the rocket will drop off in waters between South Korea and China. Its second stage is expected to fall into waters off the Philippines’ northern coast.  [CNN]

The North Koreans apparently launched the rocket early because of favorable weather conditions.

But on Friday, North Korea informed United Nations agencies including the International Maritime Organization (IMO) that it will move up its expected launch window to between Feb. 7 and Feb. 10.

Seoul officials saw the move to reflect the good weather during that time frame. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

What is more important is how well did the rocket perform?  The ROK government is confirming that an object was put into orbit:

South Korea’s Defense Ministry has confirmed that the payload on North Korea’s long-range missile entered into orbit:

A ministry official said, however, that more analysis is needed to confirm if the alleged satellite is normally operating.

The North Korean long-range missile launch was first detected at 9:31 a.m. by the South Korean Air Force’s Peace Eye aircraft and identified by the Navy’s Aegis destroyer as a missile.

The defense ministry said that the missile was successful in its first-stage separation at around 9:32 a.m., with the first stage exploding in midair into about 270 pieces in the process.

It said the missile appears to have disappeared from the South Korean military’s surveillance radar right after the missile shed its fairing southwest of Jeju Island at 9:36 a.m.  [KBS Global]

What will next be interesting to see is if the object is tumbling or not within orbit which reportedly their 2012 satellite was doing.  This will be a big achievement for the North Koreans if they actually do have a functioning satellite in orbit.

World leaders for their part are giving their usual condemnations of the launch which violated UN sanctions once again to include ROK President Park Geun-hye:

As North Korea pushed ahead with a long-range rocket launch in defiance of international warnings, the South Korean president convened a meeting of her National Security Council. At the meeting, President Park Geun-hye called for joint action among the international community to deal with North Korea.
Our Kim Bum-soo reports.

Report: President Park Geun-hye has strongly condemned North Korea’s long-range missile launch, calling it a direct challenge to the international community.

Presiding over the National Security Council(NSC) meeting at the presidential office on Sunday, Park stressed that the global community must come up with strong sanction measures to penalize the North.

[Sound bite: President Park Geun-hye (Korean)]
“This long-range-missile launch is a direct challenge to the international community as it came whilst the UN Security Council is discussing sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear test… The move by the North is a direct violation of the UNSC resolutions that ban ballistic missile launches, and the Security Council must swiftly produce strong measures under the perception that Pyongyang’s missiles and nuclear weapons pose a real threat to the international community.”

Calling the launch an unacceptable provocation, the South Korean president stressed that the missile launch is aimed at advancing the nuclear delivery system alongside nuclear weapons development.

She said that the government should take all necessary measures to strengthen the response capabilities under the South Korea-U.S. alliance.  [KBS Global]

I guess we will see what happens, but I doubt any serious consequences will happen to the North Koreans because the Chinese will continue to block or circumvent any real sanctions against the regime.

As more details about the launch become available I will post them here on the ROK Drop.

KCNA: World will clearly see a series of our "satellites soaring into the sky at the times & locations determined by WPK Central Comm."

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) September 14, 2015