DPRK reconnaissance satellite operation office starts work

SEOUL -- A special office started Saturday to operate the reconnaissance satellite "Malligyong-1," which the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched last month, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday.

The office, located at the Pyongyang General Control Center of the National Aerospace Technology Administration, will perform its mission as an independent military intelligence agency, said the KCNA.

The information acquired through the mission will be reported to the relevant permanent executive department of the Central Military Commission of the country's ruling Workers' Party of Korea, and will then be offered, under instructions, to military units tasked with state war deterrence and the General Reconnaissance Bureau of the Korean People's Army, it added.

In vindication of the move to launch the reconnaissance satellite, the KCNA criticized the repeated US deployment of its strategic nuclear assets as the "root cause" of the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula.

The last month saw the US deployment of its strategic nuclear assets, including the nuclear carrier Carl Vinson, to the Republic of Korea (ROK), followed by tripartite maritime exercises by the United States, Japan and the ROK in open waters near the Jeju Island of the ROK, said the KCNA commentary.

On Sunday, the state news agency issued another commentary condemning the move by the ROK to partially suspend an inter-Korean military agreement designed to defuse danger of an armed conflict along the Military Demarcation Line as "reckless and imprudent."

The article noted that the situation proves once again the validity of the DPRK's choice to keep pushing forward with the bolstering of its nuclear war deterrence and the modernization of its armed forces.