SEOUL: According to state news agency KCNA on Sunday ( Dec3 ), North Korea’s reconnaissance satellite operation office started out as a military intelligence agency.
According to KCNA, the office, which was set up at the Pyongyang General Control Center of the National Aerospace Technology Administration ( NATA ), began carrying out its duties on Saturday and will report any new information to the army’s reconnaissance bureau and other significant units.
On November 21, North Korea claims to have successfully launched its second defense spy satellite, which is capable of sending images of the White House, the Pentagon, US military installations, and “target parts” in South Korea.
Experts and foreign governments are debating the new satellite’s actual capabilities because Pyongyang has not yet made any pictures from it public.
An unnamed North Korean military critic claimed that the South is to blame for the dissolution of their military confidence-building contract in a separate article published by KCNA on Sunday. He also defended the launch of its spy satellite as other nations do.
The article also claimed that South Korea’s initial military reconnaissance mission this quarter turned out to be conflicting.
The second detective satellite from South Korea was launched into orbit on Friday from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base by a SpaceX Falcon 9 jet. In an effort to speed up its goal of having a 24-hour view over the Asian island, South Korea has contracted with the British company to release ten spy satellites in total by 2025.
After Seoul suspended a portion of an agreement between the two Koreas in 2018 in opposition over Pyongyang’s release of the spy satellite, North Korea announced last month that it would build more powerful military forces and fresh weapons on its borders with the South.