North Korea has intensified its pressure campaign towards the United States, claiming that its illegal satellite, which breached a United Nations Security Council resolution, successfully captured images of significant U.S. locations, including the White House.
North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un thoroughly reviewed the “photographs of the White House, the Pentagon, and other targets in Washington D.C.,” taken by its newly-launched satellite at around 11:35 pm Pyongyang time Monday, according to the North’s official Rodong Sinmun.
The state-run newspaper said on Tuesday that the satellite also captured images of U.S. military bases including the Naval Station Norfolk, the Newport News Shipyard, and the surrounding airport area – highlighting it surveilled four U.S. Navy nuclear aircraft carriers and a British aircraft carrier.
However, the paper did not release images taken by the satellite.
Likewise, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency claimed on Saturday that its satellite passed over Hawaii and observed “a naval base in the Pearl Harbor, the Hickam air-force base in Honolulu,” but no satellite photos were published.
A lack of supporting evidence makes the North’s claims questionable, but such a move could be seen as its latest act of provocation towards the U.S., given that Pyongyang claims to possess nuclear weapons and is actively refining its miniaturization and delivery technologies, aiming to deliver its nuclear warheads to reach the U.S. mainland.
North Korea has repeatedly issued threats against the U.S., specifically targeting the White House, declaring that it would turn it into an “inferno” and “ashes.”
The recent assertion could be an attempt to demonstrate North Korea’s ability to surveil key U.S. locations, showcasing the advanced capabilities it deems necessary as a self-proclaimed nuclear state.
North Korea launched a satellite last week, despite international warnings. Rocket technology can be used for both launching satellites and missiles. For that reason, the U.N. bans North Korea from launching a ballistic rocket, even if it claims to be a satellite launch.
Trading Barbs
With North Korea ramping up its provocation, the envoys of the U.S. and North Korea traded barbs at the U.N. Security Council in New York on Monday.
North Korean Ambassador Kim Song criticized the U.S. for being hostile to his country, as he defended Pyongyang’s launch of its satellite.
“One belligerent party, the United States, is threatening us with a nuclear weapon,” said Kim.
Referring to North Korea’s formal name, Kim continued: “It is [a] legitimate right for the DPRK, as another belligerent party, to develop, test, manufacture and possess weapons systems equivalent to those that the United States already possess and, or [are] developing right now.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, however, said that the U.S. and its allies’ joint military exercises – which Pyongyang claims as hostile – are defensive in nature, emphasizing that these exercises cannot justify the North’s violation of Security Council resolutions.
“We reject strongly the disingenuous DPRK claim that its missile launches are merely defensive in nature, in response to our bilateral and trilateral military exercises,” said Thomas-Greenfield, noting the U.S. drills with South Korea and Japan are announced in advance, and are purely defensive in nature.
“Once again, I’d like to express sincerely our offer of dialogue without preconditions, the DPRK only needs to accept,” she added.
Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang.
