North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the deployment of spy satellites is key to protecting his nation’s sovereignty, as his regime made good on a threat to drop “filth” on South Korea from balloons it sent over the border.
Kim gave a speech at North Korea’s Academy of Defense Sciences after one of its rockets failed in flight on Monday.
The rocket, which was meant to deploy a spy satellite, failed due to an abnormality in a first-stage engine, Kim said.
Photo: South Korean Presidential Office via AP
“Possession of a military reconnaissance satellite is a prerequisite and essential for our nation to further strengthen its self-defense deterrence and protect national sovereignty,” the official Korean Central News Agency yesterday quoted him as saying.
Kim intends to launch three spy satellites this year, it reported.
The satellites would help him keep an eye on US troops in the region and improve his ability to strike targets as he upgrades his nuclear weapons arsenal.
In the hours between North Korea giving notice of its intention to launch and actually firing off the rocket on Monday, South Korea put on a show of force by sending about 20 warplanes into skies near the border with its neighbor.
Kim said the move could not be ignored.
Separately, North Korea sent balloons full of trash, toilet paper and suspected animal feces into the South, local media reports said yesterday, with Seoul’s military slamming Pyongyang for its “low class” actions.
Photographs showing white balloons bearing garbage bags full of trash and what appeared to be excrement were shared by South Korean media, after the North said this weekend it would shower border areas in “mounds of wastepaper and filth” to punish Seoul.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that “unidentified objects believed to be North Korean propaganda leaflets have been identified in the Gyeonggi-Gangwon border area and the military is taking action.”
“Citizens should refrain from outdoor activities, do not come into contact with any unknown objects, and report them to the nearest military base or police,” it said in a statement.
The North’s actions “clearly violate international laws and seriously threaten the safety of our people,” it added.
Additional reporting by AFP
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