North Korea’s dream of building a network of satellites to spy on its enemies suffered a setback on Monday when its newest probe went up in flames, only six months after it successfully placed a military reconnaissance satellite in orbit for the first time.

Experts told NK Pro that the failure underscores systematic problems in the cash-strapped regime’s space program that call into question the feasibility of Pyongyang’s satellite ambitions — as well as the impact of suspected Russian assistance.

With three failures in four attempted launches over the past year, the apparent