SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea launched its first military spy satellite early today on a SpaceX rocket, Seoul’s Defence Ministry said, intensifying a space race on the peninsula after Pyongyang launched its first military eye in the sky last month.
Seoul’s reconnaissance satellite, carried by one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, lifted off from the Vandenberg United States (US) Space Force Base in California at 3.19am Seoul time, a Defence Ministry official told reporters.
Seoul plans to launch four additional spy satellites by the end of 2025 to bolster its reconnaissance capacity over the North. Set to orbit between 400 and 600 kilometres above the earth, Seoul’s satellite is capable of detecting an object as small as “30 centimetres”, according to the Yonhap news agency.
The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang had successfully put its own spy satellite into orbit.
“Until now, South Korea has relied heavily on US-run spy satellites” when it comes to monitoring the North, professor of military studies at Sangji University Choi Gi-il told AFP.
While the South has “succeeded in the launch of a military communications satellite, it has taken much longer for a reconnaissance satellite due to higher technological hurdles”, he said.
