SEOUL: North Korea plans to launch three extra spy satellites in 2024 as a part of efforts to ramp up its army, state media reported on Sunday (Dec 31).
Pyongyang successfully put a spy satellite into orbit final month and has since claimed it was providing images of major United States and South Korean military sites.
This yr, it additionally carried out a record-breaking variety of weapons exams, together with the launch this month of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), blaming rising threats from america.
“The duty of launching three further reconnaissance satellites in 2024 was declared” as one of many key coverage choices for subsequent yr at a year-end celebration assembly, the official Korean Central Information Company (KCNA) mentioned.
The five-day assembly, which ended on Saturday, was attended by North Korean chief Kim Jong Un.
“The USA, which has lengthy brought about and worsened political instability on the Korean peninsula, continues to pose varied forms of army menace to our nation even because the yr is coming to an finish,” Kim mentioned.
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have ramped up defence cooperation within the face of rising missile and nuclear threats from Pyongyang this yr and lately activated a system to share real-time knowledge on North Korean missile launches.
Earlier this month, a US nuclear-powered submarine arrived within the South Korean port metropolis of Busan, and Washington flew its long-range bombers in drills with Seoul and Tokyo.
The North has beforehand described the deployment of Washington’s strategic weapons – similar to B-52 bombers – in joint drills on the Korean peninsula as “intentional nuclear warfare provocative strikes”.
Kim ordered his nation’s Korean Folks’s Military to carefully monitor the safety scenario on the peninsula and to “all the time reply with an amazing angle”.
“We should reply rapidly to a attainable nuclear disaster and proceed to speed up preparations to pacify your entire territory of South Korea by mobilising all bodily means and forces, together with nuclear power, in case of emergency,” he mentioned.