- Sputnik International, 1920, 24.01.2023
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Second Place: South Korea Puts First Spy Satellite in Orbit Following North’s Launch

© AP Photo / John RaouxA SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the 26th batch of approximately 60 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband network lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, May 4, 2021.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the 26th batch of approximately 60 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband network lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, May 4, 2021.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 01.12.2023
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The South Korean Defense Ministry is preparing to place its first reconnaissance satellite in Earth's orbit, an official told reporters on Friday. The launch comes just days after the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), their rivals to the north, launched their own spy satellite.
The satellite, domestically built, was launched on Friday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The device is set to orbit between 400 kilometers and 600 kilometers up, and is capable of detecting an object as small as 30 centimeters, according to South Korean media. Seoul plans to launch four more devices by the end of 2025.
"Until now, South Korea has relied heavily on US-run spy satellites" when it comes to monitoring the DPRK, Choi Gi-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University in Wonju, told French media.
While the South has "succeeded in the launch of a military communications satellite, it has taken much longer for a reconnaissance satellite due to higher technological hurdles," he said.
In a photo taken on March 15, 2016 US soldiers of the 13th and 31st Marine Expeditionary Units gather after arriving on shore during a joint military exercise with South Korea entitled 'Ssang Yong', near the southeastern port city of Pohang - Sputnik International, 1920, 24.11.2023
Military
South Korea Urges US to Boost Defense Cooperation After North's Satellite Launch
Choi added that after the North launched its own satellite last month, "the South Korean government needs to demonstrate it can also pull this off.”
However, a key difference is that while South Korea has had to use an American rocket to launch its satellite, due to limitations on its ballistic missile program put in place by Washington, the DPRK used its own rocket.
Moscow-based military expert Alexey Leonkov told Sputnik earlier this week that this had made the DPRK “a member of the club of space powers,” an elite group of spacefaring nations to which South Korea could only “conditionally” be included.
“South Korea most likely belongs to the states that do not have their own spaceports and use the services of spaceports of other states. And after the launch of such a satellite, North Korea entered not just the club of space powers, but the club of those powers that have military reconnaissance satellites,” he said.
Called Malligyong-1, the satellite was launched on November 21 on a Chollima-1 carrier rocket from the Sohae Satellite Space Launching Station on the country’s western coast. According to observers, the rocket bore a resemblance to the Soviet Union’s Zenit rocket. However, the United States accused Pyongyang of using the launch as an excuse to advance its ballistic missile program, which the United Nations has sanctioned, claiming they violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Pyongyang withdrew from the treaty in 2003.

To test out the new satellite, the DPRK photographed key military and command sites in the US and its allies, including the White House and bases in Virginia, Japan, and elsewhere.

Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the DPRK’s ruling Workers' Party of Korea and a key spokesperson for the North Korean government, blasted American hypocrisy in its response to the launch, noting the US has threatened the DPRK with attack since the 1953 ceasefire.
The General Bureau of Aerospace Engineering of the DPRK successfully launched the Manrigyong-1 reconnaissance satellite at 22 hours, 42 minutes and 28 seconds on November 21, 112 Juche (2023) using a new type of Chollima-1 carrier rocket from Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province. - Sputnik International, 1920, 27.11.2023
Military
North Korea Launches Satellite to Keep Up With US Military Moves - UN Envoy
“The whole course of the open meeting of the UNSC over the DPRK's reconnaissance satellite launch, convened at the gangster-like demand of the US and its followers, clearly proves how weak, false and absurd are the unreasonable arguments of some UN member states denying the DPRK's sovereign rights,” Kim said on Wednesday.
The 1950-53 war, which caused widespread devastation across both North and South Korea, only ended in a ceasefire, not a permanent peace treaty, allowing 28,000 US troops to remain in South Korea and for American commanders to retain control over South Korean forces in wartime. Pyongyang has said it needs nuclear weapons and advanced missiles as a deterrent against attack in the absence of peace.
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