SEOUL: North Korea’s first spy satellite is “alive”, a Netherlands-based space expert said on Tuesday (Feb 27), after detecting changes in its orbit that suggested Pyongyang was successfully controlling the spacecraft – although its capabilities remain unknown.
After two fiery failures, North Korea successfully placed the Malligyong-1 satellite in orbit in November. Pyongyang’s state media claimed it has photographed sensitive military and political sites in South Korea, the United States and elsewhere, but has not released any imagery. Independent radio trackers have not detected signals from the satellite.
“But now we can definitely say the satellite is alive,” Marco Langbroek, a satellite expert at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, wrote in a blog post.
From Feb 19 to Feb 24, the satellite conducted manoeuvres to raise its perigee, or the lowest point in its orbit, from 488km to 497km, Langbroek said, citing data from the US–led Combined Space Operations Center.
“The manoeuvre proves that Malligyong-1 is not dead and that North Korea has control over the satellite – something that was disputed,” he said.
South Korea’s Defence Ministry said it too had assessed that the satellite was in orbit, but said it would not comment further on individual analyses. On Monday, Defence Minister Shin Won-sik said the satellite was not showing any signs of performing other tasks or engaging in reconnaissance.