According to state media on Sunday, the office in charge of North Korea’s recently launched spy satellite would function as a military intelligence organization.
After successfully launching a military spy satellite into orbit last month, Pyongyang has announced that it is now able to view photographs of significant South Korean and US military installations.
Although it hasn’t yet revealed any of the satellite imagery it says it has, it issued a warning on Saturday saying any assault on its space asset would be viewed as a “declaration of war”.
The newly established reconnaissance satellite operation office started its work on December 2 and would function as “an independent military intelligence organization,” according to a statement released on Sunday by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
According to KCNA, the office would provide the army’s reconnaissance bureau and other key units with the information it has obtained.
The report said that the North’s defence ministry expressed its war deterrence “would assume more perfect military posture”.
Numerous UN resolutions have prohibited North Korea from conducting ballistic technology tests, and experts claim that there is a substantial technological overlap between the development of ballistic missiles and space launch capabilities.
According to experts, launching a functional reconnaissance satellite into orbit would strengthen North Korea’s capacity for obtaining intelligence, especially over South Korea, and supply vital information in the event of a military confrontation.
Following two previous failures, Pyongyang made a third attempt to launch a satellite of this kind when it launched “Malligyong-1” from the North.
Seoul has said the North received technical help from Moscow, in return for supplying weapons for use in Russia’s war with Ukraine.
