North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country has completed the development of its first military spy satellite and ordered officials to make final preparations to launch the satellite as planned, the North’s state media reported Wednesday.
Kim issued the order during his visit to the National Aerospace Development Administration on Tuesday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
In the inspection, Kim “set forth the militant task to organize a non-permanent satellite-launching preparatory committee to make sure that the military reconnaissance satellite No. 1 completed as of April will be launched at the planned date, speed up its final preparations,” according to the KCNA.
The report did not mention the launch schedule.
Kim also ordered the deployment of “several reconnaissance satellites in different orbits in succession in the future” to firmly establish the satellite intelligence-gathering capability, the report said.
The leader stressed that “possession of such satellite is a primary task to be indispensably fulfilled to bolster up the armed forces of the DPRK (North Korea) that can never be abandoned, missed and changed” in the face of security environment on the Korean Peninsula.
He also said the US and South Korea are scheming to further tighten their military posture against the North under the pretext of “offer of extended deterrence” and “strengthened South Korea-US alliance, while accusing the US of deploying strategic assets to the peninsula and the region.
In December, Pyongyang said it conducted an “important final-stage” test for the development of its first spy satellite.
Source: Kuwait News Agency