North Korea preparing for satellite launch attempt, South Korean think tank warns
Fox News
North Korea is expected to take another shot at launching a spy satellite this month, according to South Korean observers.
The Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), a government-funded South Korean think tank focused on inter-Korean issues, expects their northern neighbor to try launch the complicated space hardware between Oct. 10 and Oct. 26.
“Pyongyang is likely to try to launch its spy satellite ahead of South Korea’s attempt. The North appears to prioritize delivering a political message with the satellite launch, rather than perfecting technical aspects,” said KINU research fellow Hong Min at a press conderence in Paju, according to translations from Yonhap News Agency.
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The hypothetical launch would be North Korea’s third attempt at putting a spy satellite in orbit.
“In the runup to the announcement, North Korea will likely display its advanced nuclear capabilities (with major provocations) at least once,” KINU director Chung Sung-yoon speculated, according to Yonhap.
North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration said last month that it attempted to use a new-type carrier rocket Chollima-1 to put the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 into orbit but the rocket failed during its third-stage flight.
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That unsuccessful attempt occurred just three months after an initial launch also failed.
The National Aerospace Development Administration previously said it would first study what went wrong with the August launch but noted that “the cause of the relevant accident is not a big issue in terms of the reliability of cascade engines and the system.”
Senior diplomats from the U.S., Japan and South Korea condemned the North Korean launch, saying such provocations would only result in further cooperation by Washington, Tokyo and Seoul, according to Seoul and Tokyo officials.
North Korea warned Wednesday that its military will deliver “the most overwhelming and sustained response strategy” to the U.S. after the Pentagon last week issued a report on weapons of mass destruction that called the country a “persistent” threat.
The Pentagon’s “2023 Strategy for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction” said that while China and Russia present the “principal WMD challenges, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Violent Extremist Organizations remain persistent regional threats that must be addressed.”
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.