North Korea to launch more satellites despite international pressure

Pyongyang : North Korea on Monday said that it would launch more satellites to boost its economy, despite international opposition, citing its right as a sovereign nation to develop a space programme.

The North Korean regime said that "it is a global trend that a country seeks the economic growth with the space programme", state-run daily Rodong Sinmun reported.

It added that, under its five-year space development plan, it will launch more satellites, Efe news reported. Pyongyang accused Washington of hampering both its space program and those of developing countries.

"Some countries have manipulated UN sanctions resolutions against us and hindered the sovereign country's space development. It is not a tolerable act," the daily said.

North Korea believes that "the universe is limitless and infinite", and that countries have the right to exploit the resources found in it, it added.

North Korea has launched two satellites so far: the Kwangmyongsong-1 (Bright Star-1), a name which refers to the late Kim Jong-il, father of the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in August 1998, and the Kwangmyongsong-4 in February 2016.

While Pyongyang claims the right to space development for peaceful purposes, most of the international community considers its space programme to be a covert and illegal test of long-range missiles, given that its rocket-launching technology is similar to that of intercontinental ballistic missiles.