Tubby tyrant Kim Jong Un watches rocket launch of spy satellite after North Korean regime claimed to have placed its first device in space

The launch took place at the Sohae satellite launch facility, according to North Korea’s KCNA state news agency

North Korea said it had placed its first spy satellite into orbit and vowed to launch more in the near future.

Photos published by North Korean state media showed what appeared to be tubby tyrant Kim Jong Un wrapped up in a winter jacket while watching the fiery launch of a rocket from a base in North Pyongan Province.

Scientists and engineers from the National Directorate of Aeronautics and Space Technology could also be seen celebrating with the leader.

North Korea’s KCNA state news agency said the Malligyong-1 satellite was launched on a Chollima-1 rocket from the Sohae satellite launch facility at 10:42 p.m. (1342 GMT) on Tuesday and entered orbit at 10:54 p.m. (1354 GMT).

The agency cited North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration.

This picture taken on November 21, 2023 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on November 22, 2023 purportedly shows North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un inspecting the launch of a rocket carrying the reconnaissance satellite ‘Malligyong-1’ from the Sohae Satellite Launch Site in North Phyongan province

Officials in South Korea and Japan, which first reported the launch, could not immediately verify whether a satellite was in orbit

North Korea had notified Japan that it planned to launch a satellite between Wednesday and December 1, after two failed attempts to launch what it called spy satellites this year.

Officials in South Korea and Japan, which first reported the launch, could not immediately verify whether a satellite was in orbit. Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the US military was still assessing whether the launch was a success.

US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson called the launch ‘a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,’ and said it ‘raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond’.

The launch is the first since Kim Jong Un met Vladimir Putin at Russia’s modern space facility in September for a summit at which the Russian president promised to help Pyongyang build satellites.

READ MORE: North Korea claims it has successfully sent a spy satellite into orbit after rocket launch overseen by Kim Jong-un that triggered shelter alert in Japan

South Korean officials have said the latest launch attempt most likely incorporated technical assistance from Moscow as part of a growing partnership that has seen North Korea send millions of artillery shells to Russia.

Some missile experts, however, said it may be too soon for Russian technical assistance to have been fully incorporated in the satellite or the rocket.

‘We have to see how properly this is being operated,’ said Lee Choon-geun, a rocket expert at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.

Russia and North Korea have denied conducting arms deals, but are publicly promising deeper cooperation.

KCNA said Kim Jong Un personally observed the launch, which came just over a week before South Korea plans to send its first spy satellite into space on a rocket operated by the US company Space X.

After the May launch attempt, South Korea retrieved the wreckage of the satellite from the sea and said an analysis showed it had limited use as a reconnaissance platform.

South Korea’s military said it believed the latest rocket carried a reconnaissance satellite and was launched toward the south.

Over its emergency broadcasting system, the Japanese government told residents in Okinawa to take cover inside buildings or underground. It later said the rocket appeared to have flown over and past Okinawa towards the Pacific Ocean, and it lifted its emergency warning.

On Wednesday, South Korea moved to suspend part of a military agreement it signed with Pyongyang in 2018 after the isolated North defied warnings from the United States and its allies and launched a spy satellite, calling it a success.

Scientists and engineers from the National Directorate of Aeronautics and Space Technology dressed in white could also later be seen celebrating with the leader

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo hosted a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and said in televised remarks that the government was moving ahead to suspend part of the inter-Korean pact.

President Yoon Suk Yeol is in Britain for a state visit and earlier led a meeting of the National Security Council with some ministers and the national intelligence chief by video link.

The pact, known as the Comprehensive Military Agreement and aimed at de-escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula, was signed at a 2018 summit between former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un.

The two sides agreed to impose buffer zones where live-fire drills will be suspended, as well as no-fly zones, remove some guard posts from the Demilitarised Zone separating the countries, and maintain hotlines, among other measures.

But the agreement has come under growing scrutiny and faced calls to be scrapped or suspended as critics say it limits Seoul’s ability to monitor North Korea’s actions around the border.

South Korea’s National Security Council said in a statement that the move would involve restoring reconnaissance and surveillance operations around the military demarcation line between the countries.

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