North Korea is believed to have failed in its additional launch of a military reconnaissance satellite from the West Sea Satellite Launch Site on the 27th, the day of the trilateral summit between South Korea, Japan, and China.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) sent a text message to the Ministry of National Defense press corps around 11:30 PM. that day, stating, “Our military detected one trajectory presumed to be a military reconnaissance satellite claimed by North Korea, launched from the Dongchang-ri area in North Pyongan Province in the southern direction of the West Sea at around 10:44 PM today.”
The JCS added, “This projectile was detected as multiple fragments in the North Korean waters around 10:46 PM, and South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are currently conducting a detailed analysis to determine whether it was a normal flight.”
Given that the projectile was detected as fragments just two minutes after the military tracked its trajectory, it is assumed that this additional launch of the reconnaissance satellite failed. Although the possibility that the first stage rocket was deliberately detonated after stage separation cannot be ruled out, the short period of separation time and no additional flight were confirmed.
North Korea notified the Japanese government early in the morning that day that it would launch a rocket carrying an artificial satellite from midnight on the 27th until midnight on June 4. It seems that North Korea carried out the launch of the reconnaissance satellite on the day of the notification and the first day of the announced period.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense also announced that an object that could be a ballistic missile was launched from North Korea on the same day.
According to NHK, the Japanese government issued an alert to guide residents to evacuate in the Okinawa region through the nationwide emergency warning system (J-ALERT) around 10:46 PM.
A Japanese government official told NHK, “It seems there was some trouble, like an explosion.”
Previously, North Korea had successfully launched a military reconnaissance satellite for the first time on November 21 last year. After the failures due to rocket propulsion issues on May 31 (first attempt) and August 24 (second attempt) last year, North Korea successfully put the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong-1 into orbit on its third attempt.
Afterward, North Korea publicly stated that it would launch three additional reconnaissance satellites this year. However, the additional launch that took place about six months later seems to have been unsuccessful.