South partly suspends military agreement after North's spy satellite launch

The South Korean government announced the partial suspension of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement from 3 p.m. Wednesday after North Korea's state media reported that the regime had successfully placed a spy satellite into orbit.

In this footage released by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday, a Chollima-1 space launch vehicle carrying a Malligyong-1 military reconnaissance satellite is launched from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, on Tuesday night. [YONHAP]

The South Korean government announced the partial suspension of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement from 3 p.m. Wednesday after North Korea's state media reported that the regime had successfully placed a spy satellite into orbit the previous day.

Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that the North launched a reconnaissance satellite on a new type of space launch vehicle from a launch site on the country’s western coast located in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, at 10:42 p.m. Tuesday.

The KCNA said the regime plans to launch several more satellites “in a short span of time.”

In an English-language report, the KCNA said that space launch vehicle Chollima-1 “flew normally along the preset flight track” and placed the reconnaissance satellite, named Malligyong-1, into orbit at 10:53 p.m., 705 seconds after the launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was present at the launch site and congratulated officials, scientists and technicians, the KCNA said.

The North defended the latest launch as its “legitimate” right to strengthen its “self-defensive capabilities” and vowed to fire additional spy satellites into orbit “in a short span of time,” according to the KCNA.

The KCNA also said the launch “will make a significant contribution to definitely ramping up the war preparedness” of the regime’s military.

The purported success of Wednesday’s North Korean satellite launch followed two failed attempts in May and August.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Wednesday in an interview with KBS1 Radio that the South Korean military believes the North Korean satellite had entered into a “normal orbit” around the Earth after undergoing “normal first-, second- and third-stage separation.”

Shin said the South Korean military’s analysis had considered various details of the satellite’s flight trajectory, including its speed and altitude.

In a separate statement, the JCS said it conducted “a comprehensive analysis” of the satellite’s flight path and “assessed it to have entered into orbit,” but noted that “more analysis and time is needed” before determining whether the satellite is “working properly.”

Seoul’s Defense Ministry responded to the launch by announcing the resumption of reconnaissance and surveillance activities along the inter-Korean border that had been barred by the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, which was intended to reduce the risk of accidental clashes along the Military Demarcation Line dividing the Koreas.

According to the ministry, the partial suspension of the 2018 agreement and the resumption of South Korean surveillance and reconnaissance activities along the border was decided at a National Security Council meeting earlier in the day.

South Korean surveillance activities are scheduled to resume at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the ministry said.

In a statement to reporters, the South’s Defense Ministry ascribed “all responsibility for this situation” to the North, vowing that it would respond to further North Korean “provocations” with an “immediate and forceful” response in coordination with the United States.

In an earlier text message to reporters, the JCS called North Korea’s military satellite launch “a provocative act that blatantly violates United Nations Security Council resolutions prohibiting its use of ballistic missile technology as well as scientific and technological cooperation.”

The JCS also said that South Korea, the United States and Japan deployed Aegis destroyers near the planned flight path in advance to jointly detect and track the North Korean satellite and shared information on the launch shortly after.

The North’s satellite launch took place hours before the beginning of the 10-day timeframe that the regime had relayed to Japan on Tuesday.

The White House “strongly” condemned the North Korean satellite launch, characterizing it as a “brazen” violation of multiple Security Council resolutions.

Earlier, officials from Seoul and Washington sounded the alarm over Pyongyang’s preparations for the launch, citing the possibility that North Korea received technological assistance from Russia following Kim’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September.

During an interview with KBS on Sunday, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said the North is believed to have received Russian assistance to overcome engine problems that plagued its earlier satellite launches.

A reconnaissance satellite is one of the high-tech military assets the North vowed to develop.

Others include solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, the first of which the North says it successfully tested in April, and a nuclear-powered submarine.

Tuesday’s satellite launch came hours after the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived in Busan the same day.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]