With North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently pledging to deploy military reconnaissance satellites en masse over the next five years, a working-level organization tasked with pushing this goal is already reportedly in operation.
According to a high-ranking source in Pyongyang, the authorities launched the so-called “March 7 Scientists and Technicians’ Strike Brigade” on Mar. 7.
The organization will take overall charge of reconnaissance satellite development.
In North Korea, the organization is called the “March 7 Command,” suggesting it was officially launched prior to Kim’s on-the-spot guidance visit to the National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA), which was presumably Mar. 9. North Korea uses dates to hide the true identities of its organizations.
Yu Jin, the director of the Central Committee’s Munitions Industry Department, has assumed direct control of the organization, an indication of its importance. However, Kim Jong Sik, the deputy director of the Munitions Industry Department, has separately assumed overall responsibility for the division in charge of developing the carrier rockets.
Kim is one of North Korea’s top experts on ballistic missiles by many estimates. He directly explained the firing process to Kim Jong Un during the February 2016 launch of the Kwangmyongsong-4 rocket. He also drew attention by standing closer to the North Korean leader than Academy of National Defense Science Director Jang Chang Ha at the launch of a hypersonic missile in January of this year.
Kim will apparently assume general responsibility within the organization for research, quality control, payload assembly, launches and data analysis.
Besides launch vehicles, the organization is focusing on consolidating data on engines and payloads, modernizing satellite operations and other tasks. However, the source said the focus is on improving the technological capability of the “launch vehicles” rather than the satellites themselves.
That is to say, North Korea could begin full-scale test launches of strategic and tactical weapons under the guise of satellite development.
Many experts continue to point out that long-range rockets are virtually the same as ICBMs, technologically speaking, and that North Korea’s satellite development is nothing more than a way to develop new ballistic missiles.
Seemingly aware of this criticism, North Korean authorities are stressing in their internal messaging that the March 7 Command is a state-led effort in accordance with the “Space Development Law of the DPRK,” and reflects North Korea’s firm position to turn the country into a global space power.
Meanwhile, the March 7 Scientists and Technicians’ Strike Brigade is composed of about 90 people, with seven divisions and two commands — satellites and launch vehicles.
The organization includes top talent in the fields of communication, electrical engineering, and propulsion, taken from leading institutions like the Academy of National Defense Science, Kim Jong Un National Defense University, and the Munitions Industry Department.
The source said the Academy of National Defense Science and Munitions Industry Department used to jointly work on satellite development, sharing duties between them, and it is significant that the authorities have now created a combined organization led by the state. He said it underscores the will to quickly produce the desired results by bringing together the top key personnel from the aerospace and defense sectors.
The source said the leadership clearly believes that they cannot acquire space-conquering technology or bolster national defense with just a handful of reconnaissance satellites. He added that internally, the authorities are stressing that the nation must kill two birds with one stone — to become both a nuclear power and a space power — by launching several satellites into multiple orbits.
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