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South Korea’s defence ministry has said that the country’s second homegrown spy satellite had entered orbit after its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The launch, which comes after Seoul’s first spy satellite was put into orbit from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Basein December, was livestreamed on social media platforms X and YouTube.
The Falcon 9 rocket was launched at 00.17am Irish time and the satellite successfully separated from the launch vehicle 45 minutes later and entered its targeted orbit, the ministry said in a statement.
It made successful communications with a ground station about two hours and 40 minutes after the launch, the ministry added.
The back-to-back launches of reconnaissance satellites come amid a race against North Korea for military capabilities in space.
After two earlier attempts ended in rocket crashes, Pyongyang said in November last year that it used its own Chollima-1 launch vehicle to place the Malligyong-1 reconnaissance satellite in orbit.
North Korea has previously vowed to launch three new spy satellites in 2024.
South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik told reporters that North Korea could launch a second spy satellite as early as in mid-April, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Mr Shin’s comment was based on the military’s observation of North Korea’s related activities, South Korean defence ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-gyu told a briefing.
Seoul’s second spy satellite is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capable of producing images regardless of weather conditions due to how it processes data.
The latest developments intensify a space race on the Korean peninsula after North Korea launched its first military eye in the sky last November.
South Korea’s first satellite has transmitted high-resolution images of central Pyongyang to Seoul and is expected to commence its full mission stages as early as June, according to Yonhap news agency.
Seoul plans to launch a total of five military spy satellites by 2025 to better monitor the North.
Once all five enter orbit and commence their missions, the South Korean military will have the capability to monitor key facilities in North Korea using imagery sent around every two hours, according to a report by Seoul’s government-run broadcaster KTV.
North Korea has claimed its spy satellite has sent images of a US naval base at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor and “major target” sites across South Korea.
North Korea’s launch of the “Malligyong-1” was Pyongyang’s third attempt at putting such a satellite into orbit, after two failures in May and August last year.
Seoul has said the North received technical help from Russia for the launch in return for weapons for use in the war in Ukraine.
Experts have said putting a working reconnaissance satellite into orbit would improve North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly over South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict.
Pyongyang this year has declared South Korea its “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.
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