- Kim Jong Un inspected North Korea's first finished military spy satellite on Tuesday, per reports.
- Kim gave the group tasked with its launch approval for an unspecified "future action plan."
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected the country's first finished military spy satellite in Pyongyang on Tuesday, with the dictator apparently giving the green light for its future use, according to reports.
Photos show Kim and his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, inspecting what appears to be components of the military spy satellite.
Beforehand, Kim met with the non-permanent satellite-launching preparatory committee, a group tasked with launching the satellite, Reuters reported, citing North Korean media.
Kim gave his approval for the preparatory committee to proceed with an unspecified "future action plan," according to The Guardian.
The Guardian also reported Kim as saying that the satellite's construction was completed last month, with Reuters adding that he had urged preparations for its launch to be expedited.
Tensions between North Korea and its southern neighbor, as well as with the US, continue to be frought.
Kim said in April that acquiring a spy satellite would be vital for North Korea to act as a defense against "US imperialists and [South] Korean puppet villains," per the Associated Press.
And on Tuesday he said that successfully launching the satellite is an "urgent requirement of the prevailing security environment of the country," according to Reuters, citing Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reporting.
It is unclear when the launch will go ahead, but KCNA said that the satellite is ready to be loaded onto a rocket after passing a "final general assembly check" and being tested on whether it would withstand the conditions of space.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, told AP that the launch could be conducted as early as the middle of June, but that it might be timed to coincide with significant national dates in July, September, or October.
A report on Tuesday by 38 North, a website that provides analysis on North Korea, cited recent commercial satellite imagery of North Korea's Sohae Satellite Launching Station to indicate that a new launch pad is likely being built there.
It said on Sunday that although work has apparently begun after a half-year hiatus, there was still a lot left to do.