On Saturday, Pyongyang threatened the US in destroying its spy satellites if there is an attempt to “violate the legitimate territory” of North Korea.
Pyongyang launched its first spy satellite into the sky last week. In a related development, North Korea emphasised on Saturday that it would “destroy” US spy satellites if Washington launched “any attack” on its space assets.
A spokesman for North Korea’s defence ministry said such a move would be seen as a “declaration of war,” according to a statement released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The statement came after the US official remarked that Washington “could deny an adversary’s space and counterspace capabilities… using a variety of reversible and irreversible means,” referring to North Korea’s successful launch of a spy satellite in late November.
North Korea is banned under UN resolutions from testing ballistic technology, and analysts say there is significant technological overlap between space launch capabilities and ballistic missile development.
Launching a working reconnaissance satellite into orbit would improve North Korea’s ability to gather intelligence, especially over South Korea, and would provide crucial data in any military conflict. Specifically, after last week’s launch, North Korea said its satellite had already transmitted images of key US and South Korean military installations.
So far, North Korea has not disclosed any of its claimed satellite images.
Seoul claims that the North received technical assistance from Moscow in exchange for supplying weapons to Russia.
