Opinion | Spy satellite launches on Korean peninsula bode ill for peace

The launching of spy satellites has caused the border buffer agreement between North Korea and South Korea to fall apart, amid more military drills and missile tests – and a diplomatic breakdown

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This screen grab taken from a SpaceX video shows the Falcon 9 launch of the Korea 425 Mission at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on December 1. The SpaceX rocket launched South Korea’s first military spy satellite, intensifying a space race on the peninsula after Pyongyang launched its own first military eye in the sky. Photo: SpaceX / AFP

Published: 9:30am, 7 Dec 2023

A new, dangerous layer has been added to the already tense situation on the Korean peninsula. Both Seoul and Pyongyang have successfully launched their first spy satellites, boosting their ability to surveil each other.

North Korea launched its satellite on November 21 after two failed attempts earlier this year. Although South Korean intelligence claims that Russian help was responsible for the successful launch, evidence to support this has not been made available.

North Korea also announced plans to conduct more launches soon while saying that its new satellite has sent back detailed images of major South Korean cities, American military bases in Guam and Hawaii, and the White House.

Immediately after the launch, South Korea partially suspended a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement in which the two Koreas agreed to de-escalate tensions along the border. The actions agreed on in the deal included halting field training exercises and stopping live-fire artillery drills near the Military Demarcation Line, designating no-fly zones and establishing maritime buffer zones.

Soon after its decision, the South Korean military deployed surveillance drones and reconnaissance aircraft near the border with the North.

North Korea has now fully scrapped the deal, calling Seoul’s move a “reckless act” while adding that South Korea “will be held wholly accountable in case an irretrievable clash breaks out between the north and the south”. North Korea’s state-run news agency posted an article by an unnamed military commentator that said the border buffer zone was now “completely destroyed and the unpredictable danger of war is escalating”.