SEUL, May 31. South Korean intelligence says North Korean satellite launch failure caused by excessive trajectory complexity of the launch vehicle, reducing the time to prepare for launch and using a new, not properly tested spaceport, reports the Yonhap news agency, citing a member of the South Korean parliament.
This was stated with reference to the intelligence report to the profile parliamentary committee following its meeting, the deputy of the United Democratic Party, secretary of the parliamentary intelligence committee Yun Gon Yong and the deputy of the ruling Civil Power Party, secretary of the committee Yoo Sang-bum. According to intelligence, the failure of the launch is due to the fact that in the past the flight path was straight, but this time the DPRK set the trajectory with a slope to the west, and then made an «unbearable change in the trajectory» deviating the course to the east, resulting in a technical problem. In addition, South Korean intelligence believes that due to the rush amid South Korea's successful launch of its Nuri launch vehicle with eight satellites at the end of May, the DPRK hastened and reduced launch preparations and even conducted it from an unfinished new spaceport. According to intelligence, the launch of the satellite this time was also carried out from a new launch site in the Tonchangni region, which also affected the launch efficiency, and in the event of a re-launch of the Pyongyang rocket, it will most likely change its launch site to the Sohe cosmodrome used in 2016, » whose reliability has been confirmed.
«Due to the success of the launch of Nuri, the preparation process (for the launch of a DPRK satellite — ed.), which usually takes 20 days, was reduced to several days, and the construction of a new spaceport in Dongchangni was not completed,» he said. Yoo Sang Beom. Intelligence agreed with the opinion of a number of experts that it would take more than a few weeks to check and eliminate the flaws in the launch vehicle engine, but noted that if «the defect is minor, an earlier launch cannot be ruled out.»
It is also reported that the leader of the country, Kim Jong-un, most likely watched the launch from an observation deck 1.3 kilometers from the launch site, cars, an awning and other infrastructure were observed there. As previously reported by the Central Telegraph Agency of the DPRK (CTAC), on May 31 at 6.27 (0.27 Moscow time) the military reconnaissance satellite «Mulligon-1» («Telescope -1») was launched into space, but at the stage of launching the engine of the second stage of the new rocket — carrier type «Chhollima-1» (mythical winged Korean horse, «capable of overcoming a thousand li per day» — ed.) had a problem, causing the rocket fell into the Yellow Sea. The DPRK State Administration for Space Exploration cited the unreliability and instability of the new rocket engine system and the characteristics of the fuel used as the reasons. The DPRK State Administration for Space Exploration promised to find specific causes in the near future, correct the shortcomings and repeat the launch.
At the same time, the South Korean space rocket Nuri successfully launched eight satellites into orbit on May 25. Also in February, it was revealed that South Korea plans to launch its first military surveillance satellite in November as part of a project to deploy a total of five satellites by mid-decade.