South Korea to follow North, launch first spy satellite with Space X

South Korea on Friday announced that it will launch its first military spy satellite early on Saturday on a SpaceX rocket, escalating the space race on the Korean Peninsula following Pyongyang’s first military eye in the sky last month. A defence ministry source informed reporters on Friday that Seoul’s surveillance satellite, which will be launched by one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, will take off from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California at 0319 Seoul time (GMT 1819). A picture of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with the letters “KOREA” painted on it, standing vertically on the launch pad, was made public. In order to keep an eye on North Korea, which is armed with nuclear weapons, South Korea will have launched its first indigenously produced spy satellite into orbit. By the end of 2025, Seoul intends to launch four more spy satellites to increase its ability to conduct reconnaissance over the North. Set to orbit between 400 and 600 kilometres above the earth, Seoul’s satellite is capable of detecting an object as small as “30 centimetres” (11.8 inches), according to the Yonhap news agency. “Considering resolution and its capacity for Earth observation… our satellite technology ranks in the top five globally,” the defence ministry official said, as quoted by Yonhap. The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang had successfully put its own spy satellite into orbit. “Until now, South Korea has relied heavily on US-run spy satellites” when it comes to monitoring the North, Choi Gi-il, professor of military studies at Sangji University told AFP. While the South has “succeeded in the launch of a military communications satellite, it has taken much longer for a reconnaissance satellite due to higher technological hurdles”, he said. Following the North’s successful launch of its own spy satellite, Choi said, “the South Korean government needs to demonstrate it can also pull this off”. Experts have said putting a working reconnaissance satellite into orbit would improve North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, particularly over South Korea, and provide crucial data in any military conflict. Since last week’s launch, the North has claimed its new eye in the sky has provided images of major US and South Korean military sites, as well as photos of the Italian capital Rome. It has not yet disclosed any of the satellite imagery it claims to possess. Last week’s launch of the “Malligyong-1” was Pyongyang’s third attempt at putting such a satellite in orbit, after two failures in May and August. Seoul has said the North received technical help from Moscow, in return for supplying weapons for use in Russia’s war with Ukraine. With inputs from agencies