North Korea does not have a functioning satellite in space and leader Kim Jong Un has made developing a military spy satellite a top priority for his regime, despite UN resolutions banning its use of such technology.
Pyongyang had said in the build-up to the launch attempt that the satellite would be vital to monitoring the military movements of the United States and its allies.
But the rocket lost thrust and plunged into the sea with its satellite payload, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
It added that authorities would investigate the "serious defects" revealed by the launch and conduct another test as soon as possible.
South Korea's military said it had managed to locate and salvage a portion of the suspected debris.
It released images showing a large barrel-like metal structure with thin pipes and wires at the bottom, which experts said might be a liquid fuel tank.
"Technical experts will be able to gain tremendous insight into North Korea's proficiency with large, multi-stage boosters from the recovered debris," US-based analyst Ankit Panda told AFP.
- Panic, confusion -
The launch prompted confusion and panic in Seoul, as city authorities sent an early morning emergency evacuation alert to residents and blasted an air raid siren across the downtown area.
This sparked widespread consternation online, before the interior ministry clarified minutes later the alert had been "incorrectly issued".
"I was taking my two young children to a basement parking lot as advised, in shock," a 37-year-old father who asked to be identified by his surname Yoon, told AFP.
The correction left him "speechless and outraged", he said.
Japan briefly activated its missile alert warning system for the Okinawa region early Wednesday, lifting it after about 30 minutes.
- Condemnation -
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington all slammed the launch, which they said violated a raft of UN resolutions barring Pyongyang from any tests using ballistic missile technology.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for North Korea to cease "such acts" and return to the negotiating table.
"Any launch using ballistic missile technology is contrary to the relevant Security Council resolutions," he said in a statement.
Because long-range missiles and rockets used for space launches share the same technology, analysts say developing the ability to put a satellite in orbit would provide Pyongyang with cover for testing its banned intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
In 2012 and 2016, Pyongyang tested ballistic missiles that it called satellite launches. Both flew over Japan's southern Okinawa region.
- 'Determination' -
Prior to Wednesday's launch, Pyongyang had launched five satellites since 1998, three of which failed immediately and two of which appeared to have been put into orbit.
Signals from those launches have never been independently detected, indicating they may have malfunctioned.
North Korea said Tuesday its new spy satellite would be "indispensable to tracking, monitoring... and coping with in advance in real time the dangerous military acts of the US and its vassal forces".
South Korea this month launched its own homegrown Nuri satellite and put a working satellite into orbit for the first time, with this success likely prompting the North to conduct a rapid launch of their own satellite, Seoul's spy agency told lawmakers.
"They shortened the launch period from the normal 20 days to just a few days," MP Yoo Sang-bum told reporters after a National Intelligence Service parliamentary briefing on Wednesday.
Since diplomatic efforts collapsed in 2019, North Korea has doubled down on military development, conducting a string of banned weapons tests, including test-firing multiple ICBMs.
Kim last year declared his country an "irreversible" nuclear power and called for an "exponential" increase in weapons production, including tactical nukes.
Wednesday's failure should be only regarded as a temporary setback for Kim, who will continue to develop his nuclear and satellite programmes, according to experts.
"We know that Kim's determination does not end with this recent activity," Soo Kim, policy practice area lead at LMI Consulting and a former CIA analyst, told AFP.
She said that the launch could be a "foreshadowing of greater provocations, including the nuclear test".
North Korea's military satellite launch: five things to know
Seoul (AFP) May 31, 2023 -
North Korea's attempt to launch its first military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure Wednesday, with the rocket and its payload crashing into waters west of South Korea.
North Korea does not have a functioning satellite and leader Kim Jong Un has made developing its space reconnaissance capability a top priority.
AFP takes a look at what we know:
What happened?
North Korea pitched its military satellite as a necessary counterbalance to the growing US military presence in the region.
The satellite was called Malligyong, which means telescope in Korean, and the rocket was named Chollima, after a mythical winged horse that often features in Pyongyang's propaganda.
The Chollima lost thrust shortly after its early morning launch on Wednesday, plunging into the sea, North Korean state media said.
Pyongyang said it will investigate and fix the problems with the rocket and attempt another launch as soon as possible.
South Korea's military quickly located and salvaged part of the suspected wreckage, which experts say could yield a significant intelligence haul.
Was the launch allowed?
Kim's regime is barred from using any ballistic missile technology under a raft of UN sanctions, including one that specifically demands North Korea "not conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology".
Pyongyang regularly flouts these restrictions -- which it describes as an infringement on its sovereignty -- and has test-fired multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles already this year.
It also claims it has the right to have a space programme.
But "a satellite launch and a weapon launch is the same technology," Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean army general, told AFP.
"A payload with a satellite is a satellite launch. A payload with a nuclear device is a nuclear weapon."
Missiles & satellites are the same?
Both satellite launches and long-range ballistic missiles "require highly advanced expertise" in similar ways, experts say.
Ballistic missiles have internal guidance systems, allowing them to exit and then re-enter the atmosphere to hit specific targets on Earth.
With a satellite launch, the rocket simply carries it to an intended height in space then separates, leaving the satellite in orbit and usually falling back to Earth.
Surveillance from orbit presents its own technological challenges too.
It is doubtful North Korea "has the remote sensing technologies for a proper reconnaissance satellite", Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told AFP.
"However, even a rudimentary eye in the sky could have military uses and would offer domestic political value for the Kim regime".
Has North Korea done it before?
Prior to Wednesday, Pyongyang had launched five satellites since 1998.
Among the five, three failed immediately and two appeared to have been put into orbit -- but signals from them have never been independently detected, indicating they may have malfunctioned.
The most recent satellite launch was in 2016. The following year, Pyongyang successfully test-fired its first ICBM.
"Satellites launched by North Korea in the past were effectively ICBM tests disguised as normal satellites," An Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP.
However, there is no need for North Korea to use a satellite launch to cover up an ICBM test anymore, Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, told AFP.
"North Korea has fired one missile after another without providing any rationale in recent years."
What happened in Seoul?
There was panic in the city of 10 million when an emergency text alert was sent out minutes after the launch, urging residents to "prepare to evacuate".
It took some 20 minutes before authorities in the South Korean capital retracted the warning, saying it was "incorrectly issued".
A 37-year-father of two, who asked to be identified by his surname Yoon, told AFP he had been taking his children to a basement parking lot in panic when he received the retraction.
"I was standing utterly speechless and outraged," he said.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon defended the alert, acknowledging while it "may have been an overreaction... there can be no compromise on safety".
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