North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a speech, May 28, during his visit to the Academy of Defence Sciences to mark the 60th founding anniversary of the agency, in this photo carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency the following day. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to take "overwhelmingly stern" actions against South Korea's show of force in response to the North's spy satellite launch attempt, denouncing it as a "very dangerous" provocation, state media reported Wednesday.

Kim made the remark during his visit to the Academy of Defence Sciences on Tuesday to mark the 60th founding anniversary of the agency, one day after North Korea's launch of a military spy satellite ended in failure, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North's leader defended the possession of a spy satellite as an "inevitable" choice to protect the country's sovereignty and denounced South Korea's military for demonstrating its show of force against its satellite launch attempt.

South Korea's military staged an air exercise involving around 20 fighter jets Monday near the border with North Korea, hours after North Korea informed Japan of a plan to launch a satellite by June 4.

"This is a very dangerous provocation that cannot be ignored and a play with fire that we cannot forgive," Kim said, calling it a blatant infringement upon North Korea's sovereignty.

He vowed to take "absolute and overwhelmingly stern actions" against South Korea's rash decision to demonstrate a show of force against the North's satellite launch plan, according to the KCNA.

"We need to overwhelmingly perpetuate our will and capability to stage a war so that hostile forces cannot even think about use of force," he said.

The North's leader Kim Jong-un, center, visits the Academy of Defence Sciences to celebrate the 60th founding anniversary of the agency in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo provided by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, May 29. Yonhap

North Korea launched a new rocket carrying a spy satellite, named the Malligyong-1-1, on Monday night. But the rocket exploded during the first-stage flight shortly after takeoff, the North's state media said.

In November last year, the North successfully placed a military spy satellite into orbit after two failed attempts in May and August, respectively. North Korea earlier said it will launch three more spy satellites in 2024 in a bid to monitor what it called military threats from South Korea and the United States.

In a rare move, Kim publicly acknowledged that this week's attempt to launch a reconnaissance satellite ended in failure, stressing that Pyongyang can develop by learning from failure.

"Though we've failed to achieve the goal, we will not shrink with fear over the failure. Rather we will try harder," he said. "We can learn more from failure and that's the way we could further develop."

The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper targeting the domestic audience, carried reports of Kim's speech on the first and second pages of Wednesday's edition. When North Korea's two attempts to launch a spy satellite ended in failure last year, the paper did not carry any related reports.

The South Korean military said Tuesday that engine combustion problems are behind North Korea's botched space rocket launch and Pyongyang would need "considerable time" to prepare for its next spy satellite launch.

The latest botched launch came as North Korea and Russia have been deepening military cooperation following the summit between Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin in September. Pyongyang is suspected of having provided weapons to Moscow for use in the war in Ukraine in return for Russia's possible transfer of weapons technology and food aid. (Yonhap)

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