A SpaceX rocket has launched South Korea's first military spy satellite, escalating the peninsula's space race after Pyongyang launched its first military probe last week.
The Seoul reconnaissance satellite, carried by one of Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, lifted off from the US space base in Vandenberg, California, at 10:19 a.m. local time.
"It's a beautiful launch day and Falcon Nine has successfully lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base," a SpaceX spokesperson said during a live broadcast as the word 'Korea' was written on the rocket.
If successfully placed into orbit, South Korea will have acquired its first domestically built spy satellite to monitor nuclear-armed North Korea. Seoul plans to launch four more spy satellites by the end of 2025 to bolster its reconnaissance capability in the North. Orbiting between 400 and 600 kilometers from Earth, the Seoul satellite can detect an object as small as 30 centimeters, according to Yonhap news agency.
The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang successfully put its spy satellite into orbit, which would provide images of key US and South Korean military sites, as well as photos of the Italian capital Rome. However, he has yet to reveal any of the satellite images he claims to have. The North's launch of Malligyong-1 was Pyongyang's third attempt to put such a satellite into orbit, following two failures in May and August.
Seoul said the North would receive technical assistance from Moscow in exchange for supplying weapons for use in Russia's war with Ukraine.
Additionally, North Korea has threatened to shoot down US spy satellites in response to "any attack". Pyongyang said such an operation would be considered a "declaration of war", the official KCNA news agency reported. The statement comes after a US official explained that Washington has "various reversible and irreversible means" to deprive an adversary of its space capabilities and counter it.
"If the United States tries to violate the legitimate territory of a sovereign state," then Pyongyang "will consider taking self-defense measures to weaken or destroy the stability of American spy satellites," warned a spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. North. (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
