North Korea says they did a second "important" test of a spy satellite

North Korea says they did a second “important” test of a spy satellite. 

North Korea says it has done “another important” test for its satellite systems. On Sunday, the state news agency KCNA said that the country had launched a missile for the second time in a week, a day after it was reported.

There was a lot of anger from governments in the U.S., South Korea, and Japan because they thought North Korea would do a big weapons test soon. 

They see these satellite launches as a way for the North to show off ballistic missile technology that the UN Security Council says isn’t allowed.

North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) and the Academy of Defense Science launched the satellite “to build a reconnaissance satellite,” KCNA said.

It was the second time that a rocket was launched to test satellite equipment in a week. This was the ninth rocket launch this year.

This is what KCNA said: “The test shows that the satellite’s data transmission and reception systems, its control command system (and) other ground-based systems all work well.”

South Korean officials say the rocket fired from an area near Pyongyang where Pyongyang’s international airport is thought to be a ballistic missile. KCNA didn’t say what kind of rocket was used.

S. Korea’s army says that it flew 270 km (150 miles) and reached a height of about 560 km (350 miles) (170 miles).

In January, North Korea launched a record number of weapons. It has been said that it could start testing nuclear weapons or its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) again for the first time since 2017.

A few days before the South Koreans vote on their new president on Wednesday, the North is trying to launch its spy satellite into space. 

So South Korean officials are bracing for the North to do this soon.

Lee Jong-Seok, the top foreign policy advisor to ruling party candidate Lee Jae-Myung, told to media that any satellite launch would have severe consequences because it’s the same technology used to launch an ICBM, so it would be bad for the country.

UNSC rules don’t say that South Korea can’t make its space launch vehicles, but they don’t say that.

According to the Yonhap news agency, a solid-fuel rocket will be tested this month. The news agency said this is part of a project to set up its military surveillance satellites to watch the North.