North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has inspected pictures of "major target regions" in South Korea and the U.S. state of Hawaii taken by its recently launched military spy satellite, its official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday.
Kim visited the Pyongyang General Control Center of the National Aerospace Technology Administration on Friday and Saturday and was briefed about preparations for the formal start of the reconnaissance satellite's operation on Dec. 1, KCNA said.
The photos North Korea claims to have taken with the satellite launched last Tuesday include those of Seoul and the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, which is docked in the southern South Korean port city of Busan, as well as a U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu.
However, those satellite photos have not been released.
South Korea said Thursday that the North's launch was successful and that the payload had been put into orbit, adding that Pyongyang is believed to have received technological assistance from Russia.
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have condemned the launch using ballistic missile technology as in breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
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