North Korea: Party slams failed satellite launch

North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party has “severely criticized” those responsible for the May 31 spy satellite launch failure, the official KCNA news agency said on Monday.

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At a plenary session held from June 16 to 18, North Korea’s one-sided Central Committee “severely criticized authorities for recklessly carrying out preparations for the launch of the satellite” and demanded an investigation into the “serious” failure, KCNA reported.

On May 31, a rocket supplied by Pyongyang as a launch vehicle for a military surveillance satellite fell into the Yellow Sea shortly after takeoff, with North Korean officials citing a technical problem. The South Korean military later recovered several parts of the missile.

The launch was condemned by the United States, South Korea and Japan, which condemned the new violation of United Nations resolutions banning North Korea from launching ballistic missiles whose technologies are similar to those of the launchers.

The Central Committee requested an investigation to “deeply analyze the cause of the failure and the lessons to be learned from it” and called for “a new spy satellite to be put into orbit as soon as possible to improve the intelligence capabilities of the Korean People’s Army.” ,” KCNA reported.