On November 21, North Korea appears to have successfully launched a spy satellite into space. The country’s earlier two attempts to put its first military reconnaissance satellite in orbit had failed. For North Korea, this is a much-desired success. The earlier attempts had taken place during May and August. The way North Korea handled these recent failures and continued to work towards success indicates maturity on the part of the country’s scientific and political leadership.
The North Korean state was unusually honest in accepting its recent failures. No false claims about the success were made, and neither was the world kept in the dark to guess about its intentions. There were no attempts of any false self-glorification. Kim Jong Un may have realised that the process of technology development is difficult and requires patience.
He also appears to have understood that to leap into the space domain, outside assistance is required. Between September 12 and 17, Kim made an official visit to Russia. One of the meetings between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin was at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport. There is both symbolic and strategic significance to the selection of the location and leads one to ask if the recent spy satellite success was assisted by Russia.
Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin before visiting the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Photo: Kremlin.ru/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
History of North Korea’s space programme
For a long time, North Korea, along with Iran, have been accused of using their space programmes for signalling their missile capabilities. However, the way in which North Korea has been undertaking missile testing during the last few years, it is obvious that it does not require any such smokescreen. Today, it is important to judge the North Korean space programme on its merit and the actual rationale behind such investments.
On September 4, 1998, the North Korean authorities claimed the successful launch of their first artificial satellite, Kwangmyongsong-1 (Brightstar-1). Experts, at that time, had opined that the mission was not a success. North Korea is known to have achieved success in putting the satellite into orbit in its fourth attempt on December 1, 2012, and this success earned it the tag of spacefaring state. In 2016, North Korea successfully launched Kwangmyongsong-4 into the Low Earth Orbit or LEO (payload could be around 200 kg).
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s space programme could be viewed as an expansion of its missile programme. The Korean Committee of Space Technology (KCST) was established sometime during the 1980s. This agency was responsible for research, satellite manufacture and launching, and managing the country’s rocket launch sites. Subsequently, on April 1, 2013, the National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) was established, which has emerged as the DPRK’s central institution to organise all space development projects.
For some time now, North Korea has been focusing its efforts on expanding in the space domain with a focus on military-relevant applications. In 2017, it announced a five-year plan to conquer space. As per this, it had a plan in place for building a satellite communication system by June 2019. However, this has not happened so far and nothing much is known in this regard. During a party congress (January 2021), Kim Jong Un mentioned the proposal for developing military reconnaissance satellites.
On May 31, North Korea’s first attempt to put its first spy satellite into space failed. This mission involved the launching of the Malligyong-1 satellite by using the newly developed Chollima-1 rocket. As per North Korea’s news agency, the failure resulted from the low reliability of the new engine system used on the Chollima-1 rocket and the unstable character of the fuel. The second launch undertaken on August 24 failed during the third stage of its flight. The state agency was of the opinion that the failure was due to an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight and the issue was rectifiable.
Implications for the world
North Korea is a nuclear weapon state. It is advocating its nuclear and missile programmes as formidable pillars of its security architecture. Now space is emerging as a new pillar in this structure. Having operational spy satellites directly or indirectly improves the ‘worth’ of DPRK’s nuclear deterrence mechanism. Pyongyang is open about its space ambitions and argues that it has a ‘sovereign right’ to develop spy satellites to address its security concerns.
Unfortunately, the United States and South Korean administrations are not found working towards any possible inter-Korean rapprochement. Together with Japan, they condemned the launch, which, according to them, used ballistic missile technology in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
It is high time for them to realise that old ideas of sanctions, arms, and export control measures and undertaking military exercises in Korean waters actually mean nothing to a state like North Korea, which is so brazen in its approach. Kim Jong Un understands what such powers have done to Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein. He is not keen on any reconciliation from the position of weakness.
Ukraine war and Russia’s increasing military needs for artillery shells and other munitions are drawing North Korea closer to Russia. In future, Russia-DPRK-China nexus is likely to emerge as a major nuisance for the US. It is important for the US to realise that taking a maximalist position against North Korea (that they should denuclearise) is not going to help. They need to start a process of constructive engagement. Possibly, space technologies could be a ‘low-hanging fruit’ in this regard. These technologies are dual-use technologies with significant civilian utility.
Today, North Korea needs greater assistance for socioeconomic development. Could the US think of using space technologies as an option in this regard? Some ‘outside the box’ thinking is required to address the North Korean conundrums.
Ajey Lele researches space issues and is the author of the book Institutions That Shaped Modern India: ISRO.
