North Korea ‘bitterly criticised’ officials for failed spy satellite launch
Country vows to successfully launch spy satellite another time after last month’s failed first attempt
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Your support makes all the difference.North Korea has vowed to push for a second launch of a spy satellite after last month’s failed attempt.
Top North Korean officials called the country’s first and failed launch of the military spy satellite “the most serious” shortcoming this year and criticised those responsible for the failure.
The state media reported on Monday that a three-day meeting of the ruling party with leader Kim Jong-un and other party top officials focused on modernising weapon arsenals and that party top brass “bitterly criticised the officials who irresponsibly conducted the preparations for [the] satellite launch”.
The pledge for the second launch came at the Worker’s Party of Korea plenary meeting held between Friday and Sunday.
North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said officials and top scientists were given tasks to learn from the failure of the launch and investigate the cause of the rocket’s crash.
It said officials vowed to make a successful launch in a short span of time. But the exact time was not specified.
North Korea attempted to put its first military spy satellite into orbit on 31 May, but the projectile and its payload crashed into the sea shortly after being launched. Pyongyang later said it was a rocket failure.
“The ‘Chollima-1’ crashed into the West Sea of Korea as it lost momentum due to abnormal start-up of the two-stage engine after one step separation while flying normally,” KCNA said.
Earlier, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had said the projectile had disappeared from its radar.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff had said the launch was detected at about 6.29am local time which had prompted alerts in Seoul and Japan that were later lifted.
The US and South Korea both condemned the 31 May launch and said it violated UN resolutions barring Pyongyang from any tests using ballistic missile technology.
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