North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party “strongly criticized” those responsible for the failed launch of a spy satellite on May 31, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday.
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At a public meeting held from June 16-18, North Korea’s One-Party Central Committee sharply criticized officials who irresponsibly carried out preparations for the satellite launch, and demanded an investigation into this “serious” failure, according to the KCNA.
On May 31, a missile presented by Pyongyang as a military surveillance satellite launcher crashed in the Yellow Sea shortly after takeoff, citing a technical problem. The South Korean military later recovered several parts of the projectile.
This launch was condemned by the United States, South Korea and Japan, which denounced the new violation of United Nations resolutions banning North Korea from launching ballistic missiles whose technologies are similar to those of space bombers.
The Central Committee demanded an investigation to “deeply analyze the cause and lesson learned from the failure,” and demanded that a new spy satellite be put into orbit as soon as possible “to improve the intelligence capabilities of the KPA,” the KCNA reported.
