North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) carried out what state media described as an “important final-stage test” for the development of a military reconnaissance satellite on Sunday. Perhaps not coincidentally, the test took place 10 years to the week that NADA successfully launched the Unha-3 space launch vehicle back in 2012. 

The latest test underscores how far Pyongyang’s space ambitions have come and foreshadows what is likely to be a prominent space launch — or series of launches — in the coming years.

Developing a military reconnaissance satellite was one of the many military modernization goals