North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the country would launch “a large number of reconnaissance satellites” by 2025 to monitor the “hostile” military activities of the US forces and its allies in the region, state media reported Thursday.

The North Korean leader laid out the plan in a rare visit to the National Aerospace Development Administration, which came after Pyongyang claimed it conducted an “important test” for developing a reconnaissance satellite on Feb. 27 and Mar. 5.

After being debriefed on the test outcomes, Kim underscored that developing a reconnaissance satellite has “great significance in achieving the five major goals” of the five-year national defense development plan proposed at the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021.

Kim also reiterated the “strategic significance of the reconnaissance satellite in enhancing the state’s war deterrent and the war preparedness capacity,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported in a Korean-language dispatch.

Emphasizing the urgency, Kim said developing a reconnaissance satellite was “a political and military priority task to which our party and government attach paramount importance and is a supreme revolutionary task.”

The North Korean leader defended the project as an act to “protect North Korea’s sovereignty and national interests, exercise the legitimate right of self-defense and elevate national prestige.”

Kim also underlined the necessity of improving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, particularly against the US.

The ruling party’s “important strategic and tactical policy on bolstering the national defense capability is to thoroughly monitor and identify anti-DPRK and hostile military actions by the aggression troops of the US imperialism and its vassal forces on the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding area,” Kim said.

The party also seeks to “enhance the capability to control the situation and improve the capability of the state armed forces to rapidly respond” to any situation by launching a spy satellite.

To that end, Kim set forth a goal for developing and operating a number of reconnaissance satellites during the period of implementing the five-year plan between 2021 and 2025.

The North Korean leader reiterated that the plan aims to “provide the DPRK armed forces with real-time information on anti-DPRK military actions by aggression troops of the US imperialism and its vassal forces in South Korea, Japan and the Pacific region.”

“The Party Central Committee entirely endorses the National Aerospace Development Administration’s decision to firmly establish reconnaissance and information collection capability by putting a large number of military reconnaissance satellites into a sun-synchronous polar orbit in the period of the five-year plan,” KCNA said.

Vann Van Diepen, former principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, said a new satellite launch “would most likely” use an intercontinental ballistic missile or ICBM-sized space launch vehicle.

“The launch of such a system — the first since the launches of Hwasong-14 and -15 ICBMs in 2017 — would also be consistent with Kim Jong Un’s January 2022 threat to resume previously suspended ICBM launches,” Van Diepen said in a report issued on Wednesday by Washington-based 38 North.

“(But), the North might regard a satellite launch as less provocative than a launch of an ICBM-class system in a ballistic missile mode,” he said, adding an SLV launch would still “make technical contributions to North Korea’s ICBM capability.”

Repeated warnings, heightened readiness
The North Korean media report comes as the US intelligence community and high-ranking military officials have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang could launch a rocket or an ICBM this year.

“The DPRK desires to become a space nation but has not attempted a space launch since 2016,” Adm. John Aquilino, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. 

“As Kim Jong Un proclaims the DPRK’s sovereign right to do so, resumption of space activity is possible in 2022.”

Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the US Northern Command, on Tuesday warned that North Korea may launch an ICBM “soon” during the committee’s hearing.

The US Office of the Director of National Intelligence also said North Korea has paved the way for resuming ICBM and nuclear tests this year in an annual worldwide threat assessment report released this week.

In addition, the US Indo-Pacific Command on Wednesday issued an unusual statement on its “enhanced readiness” against North Korea’s repeated missile launches.

The Indopacom said the recent spate of ballistic missile launches including the launch on March 5 “pose a threat to the DPRK’s neighbors and the international community.”

“In light of this, on March 7, 2022, US Indo-Pacific Command ordered intensified Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance collection activities in the Yellow Sea, as well as enhanced readiness among our ballistic missile defense forces in the region,” the statement read. 

“Our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.”

A senior US defense official on Wednesday said the command’s “heightened readiness” has reflected requirements of protecting the US mainland and its allies.

“The North has been conducting, as you all have documented now, a series of additional launches and tests, provocative launches and tests,” the defense official told reporters during a background briefing. 

“We believe we are duty-bound to make sure that our readiness meets the requirements.”

By Ji Da-gyum (dagyumji@heraldcorp.com)