Pyongyang [North Korea], June 20: Top North Korean officials have promised to try a second time to launch a military spy satellite, calling their country's first and botched launch last month their "gravest failure" this year, according to state media.
The pledge came at a ruling Worker's Party of Korea meeting held between Friday and Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Monday. The enlarged plenary meeting ordered workers and researchers to analyse the failed launch and "heavily criticised" those in charge of the botched operation, KCNA said.
North Korea attempted to put its first military spy satellite into orbit on May 31, but the projectile and its payload crashed into the sea shortly after being launched, due to what Pyongyang said was a rocket failure. The crash posed a setback to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's push to acquire a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the United States and South Korea.
Washington and Seoul condemned the May 31 launch, saying it violated United Nations resolutions barring Pyongyang from any tests using ballistic missile technology. Analysts have said there is a significant technological overlap between the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and space launch capabilities.
The KCNA report did not say exactly when North Korea might attempt a second launch. But South Korea's spy agency earlier told legislators that it would take probably take "more than several weeks" for Pyongyang to determine what went wrong with the first effort.
South Korea said it had successfully retrieved a large chunk of the crashed rocket from the seabed. Seoul had been working for more than two weeks to recover the wreckage as the debris could help scientists gain insight into Pyongyang's ballistic missile and satellite surveillance programmes.
Source: Qatar Tribune