South Korean and US intelligence agencies are still closely monitoring the time when North Korea will launch another reconnaissance satellite, however, they cannot reveal the estimated time yet.
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| The meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on June 19 confirmed that Pyongyang will continue to launch a reconnaissance satellite after the failure on May 31. (Source: KCNA) |
On June 19, speaking during a visit to China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: "China is in a unique position to encourage Pyongyang to engage in dialogue and end its behavior... All members of the international community are interested in efforts to encourage North Korea to act responsibly and stop launching missiles."
China is a neighbor, with particularly close political and economic ties, with North Korea.
On the same day, the country's General Administration of Customs released trade data for May 2023.
Specifically, trade turnover between China and North Korea reached 189.57 million USD, down from 199.42 million USD in April, of which Pyongyang's import turnover remained at 165 million USD.
According to the North Korea website NK Pro , with a large amount of goods at the two countries' border quarantine facilities in May, Pyongyang is likely to increase its imports of goods from China in the coming time.
Earlier, also on June 19, KCNA cited the results of the 8th enlarged plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, stating: "The most serious problem is the failure of the military reconnaissance satellite launch on May 31, the strategic work in the field of space development."
The committee called the failure an “unavoidable setback” and pledged to conduct a similar launch soon.
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea also called for “the defense sector to consistently adhere to the direction of developing nuclear weapons and nuclear forces... by increasing the production of powerful nuclear weapons.”
Responding to the above information, Mr. Lee Sung Jun, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea , said that Seoul will further evaluate the content just posted by KCNA .
At the same time, this official said that South Korean and US intelligence agencies are still closely monitoring the time when Pyongyang will launch another reconnaissance satellite, however, they cannot reveal the estimated time yet.
South Korean forces continue to search for other debris from North Korea's "Chollima-1" rocket that crashed in the Yellow Sea on May 31.
Previously, on the night of June 15, the South Korean military successfully salvaged a piece of debris, presumed to be the second stage of the Chollima-1 missile, which is cylindrical in shape and 12 meters in diameter, in international waters 200 km from Echeong Island.
The debris was brought to the 2nd Fleet of the Republic of Korea Navy in Pyeongtaek City, Gyeonggi Province on June 17, before being transferred to the Institute of Defense Science (ADD) for analysis and verification.
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