North Korea's 1st military spy satellite liftoff in June

May 31, 2023: North Korea declared its plans to establish its military spy satellite, lifting some South Korean and Japanese defense products.

North Korean military official Ri Pyong Chol said in a Monday statement that Pyongyang intends to launch a satellite to track “dangerous” actions by the U.S., pointing to its current joint military drills taking with South Korea.

North Korea declared the event “fully proves how the enemy is making preparations for the military act of aggression on the DPRK,” referring to its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Ri said the satellite designed to be launched in June  will be “indispensable to tracking, monitoring, discriminating, controlling and coping with in advance in real time the dangerous military acts of the U.S. and its vassal forces openly revealing their reckless ambition for aggression.”

“Under the present situation brought by the irresponsible military acts by the U.S. and South Korea, we steadily feel the need to expand reconnaissance and information means and improve various defensive and offensive weapons and have the plans for carrying out their development plans,” he said.

Shares of South Korean defense companies Firstec and Victek rose 3.8% and 3.3%, respectively, Tuesday afternoon, returning from a market visit Monday. Korea Aerospace Industries also edged up 0.6%.

Japanese defense establishment Hosoya Pyro-Engineering gained 1.11%, while Mitsubishi Electric Corp inched up 0.16%.

Japan’s defense ministry warned it would “take all possible efforts” to destroy any North Korean missile that enters its territory, adding that Pyongyang’s replicated testing of its ballistic missiles threatens the peace and security of the area and the global community.