South Korea on Wednesday suspended part of a 2018 military agreement with North Korea after Pyongyang defied warnings from the United States and drew Western condemnation by launching a spy satellite.
The suspension of a clause in the agreement will see South Korea step up military surveillance along the heavily fortified border with North Korea.
Pyongyang said it placed its first spy satellite in orbit on Tuesday. Photographs in state media showed leader Kim Jong Un watching the launch of a rocket from a base.
Kim was later briefed on the satellite’s operations at the control centre of the space agency in Pyongyang and viewed images taken above the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam of U.S. military installations, including the Andersen Air Force Base, North Korea’s KCNA state news agency said.
North Korea followed the satellite launch by firing an unspecified ballistic missile toward the sea east of the Korean peninsula late on Wednesday, but that appeared to have failed, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing the South Korean military.
The G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the EU condemned the satellite launch and called for a “swift, united, and robust” international response, particularly by the U.N. Security Council.
A G7 statement reiterated condemnation of alleged North Korean arms transfers to Russia and expressed deep concern about the potential for any transfer of nuclear- or ballistic missile-related technology to North Korea.
U.S.-led efforts to boost U.N. sanctions on North Korea have failed in recent years due to opposition from veto-wielding China and Russia.
KCNA said Kim stressed the need for more reconnaissance satellites on different orbits to give his armed forces “abundant valuable real-time information about the enemy and further promote their responsive posture.”
The satellite would begin its reconnaissance mission on Dec. 1, after adjustments, KCNA said.
South Korea’s military said the satellite was believed to have entered orbit, but it would take time to assess whether it was operating normally. The Pentagon has said the U.S. military was assessing whether the launch was a success.
Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Reuters U.S. Space Force data had catalogued two new objects in an orbital plane consistent with the launch from North Korea.
“I conclude the objects are the spy satellite and the rocket upper stage,” he said.
The launch came just over a week before South Korea plans to send its first spy satellite into space on a rocket operated by the U.S. company SpaceX.
South Korea’s Defence Minister Shin Won-sik said North Korea had “exaggerated” by saying Kim had viewed images of U.S. military installations at Guam.
Read more: What to know about North Korea’s spy satellite launch
“Even if it enters normal orbit, it takes a considerable time to carry out normal reconnaissance,” Yonhap quoted him as saying. “Taking photos of Guam cannot be done on the first day, if you have any knowledge of satellites.”
Shin said it would take at least until the weekend to tell whether the satellite is functioning.
The suspended North-South pact, known as the Comprehensive Military Agreement and aimed at de-escalating tension between them, was signed at a 2018 summit between Kim and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Critics have said the pact weakened Seoul’s ability to monitor North Korea while Pyongyang had violated the agreement.
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