North Korea to Launch another Satellite Next Month

Though the satellite launch was lauded as one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s greatest achievements, the orbit of the spacecraft has begun to decay, reports MSN News. The enigmatic area has been below worldwide punishment ready for its nuclear and missile exams.

Amid mounting tension over North Korea’s possible launch of a long-range rocket in October, South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday urged Pyongyang to cease provocative acts and curb its pursuit of atomic weapons to allow for peace on the peninsula and a better future for its people.

“Because of the reckless anti-DPRK confrontational racket of the South, the rare reunions of separated families are at stake like being on a thin ice”, an unnamed spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement.

Despite the reconciliatory mood that followed the talks, North Korea said earlier this month that it would launch a rocket to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party.

While many observers were impressed that Pyongyang managed to put an object into orbit in 2012, German aerospace engineer Markus Schiller said the mission was “not a game-changer”.

Speaking this week, Schiller said that nothing since the previous launch has changed his assessment.

“We must no longer use political and military reasons as excuses for turning a blind eye to humanitarian issues, such as reunion of separated families in particular”, Park said.

The test also sparked fears that the North has moved closer to ultimately developing nuclear-tipped missiles that could potentially reach the United States mainland. Also, a missile must be designed for its warhead to withstand the stress of atmosphere re-entry, which is not the case when putting a satellite into space and leaving it there.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s official media monitored in Seoul, carried an article in the main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, which said the expected satellite launch would come under their sacred right as a sovereign nation. No signal has ever been detected from the satellite that orbits earth every 95 minutes at an altitude of about 540 km. The design that made the Unha-3 suitable to launch a satellite makes it a poor vehicle to deliver weapons, said experts.

“It should be clear how important these capabilities are to the leadership because they are expensive and hard to acquire”, he said.