The U.S., reacting to a report from North Korea's state-run news station Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), condemned the reported successful launch of a spy satellite, news outlets claim, a first amid 25 years of struggles and failures in Pyongyang's ongoing efforts to develop rocket propulsion and guidance systems.
Amidst the dual-use nature of rocketry technology used in satellites and nuclear warheads, The Hill reported the White House as saying on Tuesday it "strongly condemns" the launch, and that North Korea violated United Nations Security Council resolutions when it used ballistic missile technology, which the U.N. bars Pyongyang from using. But the quote The Hill used in its Tuesday report from the White House stemmed from Aug. 23, 2023.
"The president and his national security team," the Biden administration said, per The Hill report, "are assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners. We urge all countries to condemn this launch and call on [North Korea] to come to the table for serious negotiations."
In the story stemming from The Hill and the Associated Press, which could not be independently verified, KCNA allegedly reported the successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite called the Malligyong-1, which rode atop a Chollima-1 rocket in the country's main launch area Tuesday night.
Following the story's development, Japan issued a missile warning for Okinawa. Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later said the launch was a "serious threat that affects the safety of the people" across the region.
Conversely, KCNA released a statement from North Korea's space agency, the National Aerospace Technology Administration, on Tuesday that stated that the U.S. and its allies have militarized space.
"Nothing can justify the dangerous scheme of the U.S. and its allied forces to use the entire outer space as an aggressive war means for carrying out their strategy for world domination while openly calling for possible preemptive strike on someone," KCNA wrote.