Kim Jong Un reviewed photographs of major US military bases received from spy satellite, says North Korea

Hours after North Korea announced the successful launch of the “Malligyong-1” spy satellite, state media on Wednesday reported that Kim Jong Un reviewed photographs of major US military bases received from the country’s first spy satellite.

“Kim watched the aerospace photos of Anderson Air Force Base, Apra Harbor and other major military bases of the US forces taken in the sky above Guam in the Pacific, which were received at 9:21 a.m. on November 22,” state-run news agency KCNA said.

The state media had earlier reported that the Malligyong-1 satellite was launched on a Chollima-1 rocket from the Sohae satellite launch facility at 10:42 p.m. (1342 GMT) on Tuesday and entered orbit at 10:54 p.m. (1354 GMT).

KCNA cited North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration.

Tuesday’s launch is the first since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Vladimir Putin at Russia’s modern space facility in September, where the Russian president promised to help Pyongyang build satellites.

South Korean officials have said the latest launch most likely involved technical assistance from Moscow under a growing partnership that has seen North Korea send millions of artillery shells to Russia.

Some missile experts, however, said that it was too soon for Russian technical assistance to have been fully incorporated into the satellite or the rocket and that Moscow would not have shared highly sensitive and proprietary technology.

“This consultation may not have been an in-depth involvement in the design, but likely targeted specific challenging aspects within North Korea’s planned design,” Reuters quoted Hong Min, an expert on the North’s weapons development at the Korea Institute for National Unification, as saying.

Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told Reuters it is much too early for the North to have integrated Russia’s assistance.

“Maybe the Russians gave them some advice, but it’s normal for countries to launch and learn,” Lewis said.

Russia and North Korea have denied conducting arms deals, but are publicly promising deeper cooperation.

With inputs from agencies