May 31st, 2023 will forever be regarded as a failure for the North Korean Dear Leader, Kim Jong Un, as well as both his spy and aeronautical programs. In a statement provided by the state media, they claimed that the satellite-equipped rocket plunged into the waters off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula. A loss of thrust following the separation of the first and second stages plunged it into the waters.
South Korean officials are said to also be looking into the launch. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that the rocket has been launched at 6:30 am local and took off from the northwestern area of Tongchang-ri, which is consistent with their main space launch center is located. The Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan Hirokazu Matsunoreported that nothing launched by North Korea had reached space.
Seoul issued warnings in preparation for the launch, and they along with Japan had people prepared to evacuate in case North Korea sent debris or rockets into their countries. In Okinawa, Japan, people were sent alerts to get inside hardened shelters as they were potentially on a damaging path. These warnings turned out to be premature, and they ended up suffering no reports of damage or injury.
Being prepared for this situation is something the residents of both countries have been doing frequently for nearly 70 years. While getting prepared for attacks by North Korea has just become part of their culture, the officials in North Korea are perpetually pushing propaganda that claims that everything they are doing is in self-defense from attacks perpetuated largely by South Korea and the US.
On May 30th a North Korean official spoke in depth about their ultimately failed spy satellite, calling it an utter necessity with the spy concerns the nation has from both South Korea and the US. With the current life fire exercises on the DMZ by South Korea and the US, officials from North Korea believed that this would be the most prudent time to make such a move, even though the rocket they were using was made with missile technology the UN Security Council resolutions have banned.
This failed spy satellite is just one of the numerous milestones towards becoming a superpower North Korea has promised to also introduce their own takes on multi-warhead missiles, nuclear subs, solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as the hypersonic missile. Any nation that has been accomplished militarily has found success in these areas, and in Kim’s mind, they are a necessity for his nation to be taken seriously.
As it stands Russia and China have been doing everything they can to prevent the UN Security Council from imposing more sanctions on Kim and North Korea. Given their UN conflicts status with the US, they are already making the pressure on the council much stronger than it needs to be. Given the previous “Earth-observation” satellites they launched successfully in 2012 and 2016, it makes sense that the idea of this third one makes South Korea and Japan exceptionally on edge.
Kim has been taking a lot of failures over the last few years. Ever since he failed at maintaining a friendship with President Trump, he has done nothing but come up short on big projects and only enjoyed “success” while re-testing the same old missile designs as before. While some of them have been on bigger scales than previously attempted, they aren’t strong enough to prove that the hermit nation can do everything they swear they can.
For the people of North Korea, many of them are too malnourished, poor, brainwashed, and unable to see the truth behind the rhetoric that Kim and the rest of his political elite keep pushing on them. They are incredibly worried about getting caught trying to push any other agenda, and until someone frees them from the brainwashing and lies of the Kim family, they will continue to live such horrific lives.
