North Korea wants to turn around its dismal space launch record, saying its first military spy satellite is ready for liftoff

• North Korea said on Wednesday that it's ready to launch its first military spy satellite this month.
• It's launched two observation satellites before, but it's unclear if they're still functioning properly.
• Pyongyang has a dismal record of space launches, with most of its satellites failing to enter orbit.

North Korea claimed on Wednesday that its first military spy satellite is ready for launch.

State media photos show the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, and his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, visiting the satellite launch station on Tuesday.

There, Kim and his officials appeared to discuss diagrams of the launch rocket, which were blurred out in the state-published photos seen by Insider.

Dubbed "military reconnaissance satellite No. 1," the satellite is set to launch sometime in April, though no specific date was announced, state media KCNA reported. 

North Korea has successfully put two observation satellites into orbit before. If successful, this launch would be the first officially conducted by North Korea for military purposes.

At his visit to the launch headquarters, Kim complained of an "escalating military threat and challenge" from the US and South Korea, calling for a means of "securing real-time information about the hostile forces' military scenario," per KCNA.

Most of North Korea's space launches have failed, and US authorities doubt that both satellites Pyongyang sent into space are working.

North Korea first tried launching a satellite in 1998, but the rocket failed to reach orbit and burned up in the atmosphere.

Pyongyang's second attempt was in 2009, when its payload likely fell into the Pacific Ocean, according to reports from the South Korean and US authorities. The North claimed that the satellite entered orbit, but even Russia's space command couldn't find it.

Another launch in April 2012 famously disintegrated within 90 seconds after liftoff. North Korean state media admitted the failure on national television, reported The New York Times.

But just eight months later, North Korea finally pulled off a successful launch, sending the "Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3" into space. At the time, North Korea hyped this launch as the moment that "clearly testifies that our country has the capability to enter into space."

However, the satellite later appeared to be "tumbling out of control," indicating that it wasn't operating properly, US officials said.

Pyongyang in 2016 put another observation satellite into space, and it also appeared to tumble in space before stabilizing, the US said. The North claimed that it received hundreds of images from the satellite.

It's not clear how useful this new spy satellite will be to Pyongyang. North Korea published photos in December that it said were taken from a mock test of the satellite, showing black-and-white, low-resolution images of Seoul.

On Tuesday, Kim ordered the production of several more recon satellites, citing gathering military intelligence as "the most crucial primary task" for North Korea's defense program amid a "serious security environment," per KCNA.

Pyongyang has, since early 2022, continually broken its nuclear agreements by testing long-range missiles. Washington and Seoul held their largest joint field exercises in the last five years in March.

Meanwhile, North Korea continued its missile tests, trialing a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday as Kim declared it would instill "extreme uneasiness and horror" in Pyongyang's enemies.