North Korea takes jab at US military bases in spy satellite update
Pyongyang, North Korea - North Korea said Wednesday it had received intelligence on US military bases after the successful launch of a military spy satellite.
State-run news agency KCNA again reported on Tuesday's successful launch of the satellite, which South Korea confirmed had entered orbit.
Images in state media showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un smiling and waving, surrounded by white-uniformed scientists and engineers who cheered and clapped after watching the successful blastoff.
Kim "watched the aerospace photos of Anderson Air Force Base, Apra Harbor, and other major military bases of the US forces taken in the sky above Guam in the Pacific," the agency added.
The US has led condemnation of the launch, saying it was a "brazen violation" of UN sanctions, while South Korea responded by partially suspending a 2018 military deal with the North, saying it would resume surveillance operations along their border.
North Korea defies US and allies
North Korea's previous efforts to put a spy satellite into orbit in May and August both failed. Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington had repeatedly warned Pyongyang not to proceed with another launch, which would violate successive rounds of UN resolutions.
Space launch rockets and ballistic missiles have significant technological overlap, experts say, and Pyongyang is barred by UN resolutions from any tests involving ballistic technology.
Seoul's spy agency this month said Pyongyang appeared to have received technical advice from Russia in return for sending at least 10 shipments of weapons for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
KCNA said it was North Korea's "legitimate right" to launch the satellite, as the country confronts what it calls threats from South Korea and the US.
The North plans to launch more satellites "in a short span of time" to step up its surveillance capability on South Korea, KCNA said.
Cover photo: via REUTERS