North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be rushing to develop a rocket capable of carrying a military reconnaissance satellite as a bargaining chip to use if former U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House, a U.S. think tank said Tuesday.
A day after North Korea's latest bid to put a spy satellite into orbit failed, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Kim's tight time line for developing satellite launch vehicles could be "related to his positioning (for) a future deal with Trump."
CSIS said in its analysis that a deal could include a moratorium on long-range rocket launches in return for sanctions relief and de facto acceptance of North Korea possessing an arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 5 presidential election, met Kim three times in person while he was in the White House as part of efforts to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Trump has gone on to speak highly of his relationship with Kim throughout his 2024 presidential campaign.
North Korean state media said a new satellite-carrying rocket exploded shortly after it was launched Monday night, apparently due to an engine problem.
After two failures, North Korea placed its first military reconnaissance satellite into orbit in November last year and said it would launch three more this year.
The Washington-based think said it believes the rocket was not a new type and the failed launch presumably involved modifications to the engine of the existing Chollima-1 SLV.
"Such failures are not unexpected in the process of refining launch capabilities," it said. "If North Korea can persevere through the next two announced launches, absorb and implement the lessons of its failures and refine the Chollima-1 design, it is likely to produce a reliable SLV by this time next year."
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday the United States condemns North Korea's fourth SLV launch attempt in the space of a year in defiance of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from testing any ballistic missile technology.
Miller said the United States has been in close consultation with Japan and South Korea over the launch.
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