North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the national space development center on Tuesday to inspect a military reconnaissance satellite that has been “completed” and instructed those present to prepare for the planned launch, the agency reported today. state KCNA.
Kim visited the headquarters of the National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) in Pyongyang yesterday with his daughter, where he stressed that space development is a “key factor” in turning a country into a a “benchmark in areas such as the economy, science and technology”.
Kim’s visit comes after Pyongyang launched a test device in December that took photos of South Korea and announced it planned to launch a spy satellite into orbit by April.
Last week the KCNA agency itself published an article praising the development potential that the space industry brings with it and the projects that the regime is preparing in this field.
During the visit, the leader also affirmed that “South Korea has become a powder keg and an outpost of aggression due to the constant deployment on the Korean peninsula of different and important strategic assets,” referring to the military exercises that these days performed by Seoul and Washington, which include the presence of US aircraft carriers and bombers.
Images taken between the end of March and the beginning of April and analyzed by the specialized website 38 North indicate that the construction of a port to the southeast of the Sohae space launch base (in the northwest of the country) has recently accelerated and advanced a lot, along with the road that connects it to the complex.
The completion of this port and related infrastructure will allow the shipment of key equipment and materials for the modernization of Sohae.
Kim himself visited Sohae in March last year and ordered to expand the base to launch “larger carrier rockets” and deploy reconnaissance satellites.
North Korea has launched five space rockets – the last in February 2016 – with which it assured that it was seeking to put observation satellites into orbit.
The international community considered in each case that the regime was trying to covertly test ballistic missile technology and no expert has ever picked up any signal from the devices being deployed into Earth orbit.
In any case, Pyongyang has since tested countless intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the last one on April 13.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
