North Korea accused the United States of hypocrisy this week for helping the South launch its very first military satellite just days after Washington censured Pyongyang for doing the same.
Global peace would be in jeopardy "if the gangster-like logic of the U.S., that its stooge can do anything and a country hostile to it cannot exercise even the basic right as a sovereign state, is connived and tolerated," read a statement by the National Aerospace Technology Administration the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
South Korea launched its first spy satellite via SpaceX's Falcon 9 on December 1 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Earlier this week, Seoul said it conducted its third successful test of a solid-fuel rocket this year, with the homemade technology expected to help it deploy additional satellites—both civilian and military—in the coming years.
Seoul accused Pyongyang of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea said that it had successfully put its first reconnaissance satellite into orbit on November 21. The space asset, whose launch was overseen by Kim Jong Un, would be used to spy on the South and its ally, the United States, Kim's regime said.
North-South tensions, which had been thawing in recent years, flared up once more when President Yoon Suk-yeol's government said Seoul would partially suspend a 2018 agreement on aerial surveillance in the demilitarized zone as part of its response. Pyongyang then declared a full exit from the accord—and said its neighbor would be responsible for any ensuing hostilities.
The United States criticized North Korea's satellite launch for utilizing ballistic missile technology prohibited by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
NATA, Pyongyang's space agency, called Washington's position an "illegal double standard" and space the "common asset of mankind," according to a statement carried in Tuesday's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, a mouthpiece for the Workers' Party of Korea.
A day earlier, North Korea's Foreign Ministry repeated its claim that the satellite was functional. It was bolstering the country's defense capabilities and "improving the security environment of the Korean Peninsula," it said.
The U.S., South Korea, Japan and Australia imposed sanctions on agents who allegedly facilitated North Korea's evasion of Security Council sanctions, meant to prevent dual-use goods from benefitting the country's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Pyongyang said the latest round of punitive measures infringed upon its sovereign rights and violated the U.N. Charter by interfering in North Korea's domestic affairs.
North Korea has attempted six satellite launches since 1998. Only two succeeded, but they were deemed to be non-functional.
South Korea's intelligence service alleged the North's recent success was thanks to Russia's technical assistance. President Vladimir Putin in September pledged to aid Pyongyang's satellite development in a meeting with Kim at Russia's top space launch facility.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
