As this publication reported yesterday, two ballistic missiles were launched from Tongchang-ri at approximately 2120 EST. Today, North Korean state-owned media is claiming that one of those launches was a test vehicle for several imaging cameras, and that one snapped an image of downtown Seoul, South Korea.
The government organ also announced that this was a final preparation for the launch of a spy satellite by April 2023. The official announcement reads below:
If successful, this would make the fifth North Korean spy satellite launch. However, only one of the four Bright Star spy satellites successfully achieved orbit in 2016. North Korea registered that satellite with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs on May 9, 2016 and it is still in orbit.
Although North Korea claims Bright Star-1 achieved orbit in 1998, no space body was ever registered or tracked by any international body. Bright Star 2 and 3 suffered catastrophic failures and did not achieve orbit respectively in 2009 and 2012.
