By Hyunsu Yim
SEOUL (Reuters) -North&nbsp;Korea's Kim Yo Jong, leader Kim Jong Un's sister, said her country would soon put a military&nbsp;spy&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;into orbit and promised Pyongyang would increase its military surveillance capabilities, state media KCNA reported on Thursday.
"It is certain that (North&nbsp;Korea's) military reconnaissance&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;will be correctly put on space orbit in the near future and start its mission," Kim, a powerful government official in her own right, said in an English-language statement carried by KCNA.
Her remarks came after the failure of a&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;launch&nbsp;on Wednesday.
It may take weeks or more to resolve the problems that caused the rocket's failure, a South&nbsp;Korean lawmaker said on Wednesday, citing the South's intelligence agency.
In a rare admission of a&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korean setback, KCNA reported that the Chollima-1 rocket, carrying a military reconnaissance&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;known as "Malligyong-1", crashed into the sea after an accident.
KCNA also published on Thursday images of what it said was the new rocket lifting off from a coastal&nbsp;launch&nbsp;pad. The white-and-gray rocket had a bulbous nose, apparently for carrying a&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;or other cargo.
The photos confirmed that the rocket is a new design, said Ankit Panda of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"The&nbsp;launch&nbsp;used the new coastal&nbsp;launch&nbsp;pad they've built at Tongchang-ri, so we might see a larger space&nbsp;launch&nbsp;vehicle use the traditional gantry that has seen some work recently," he added.
U.S.-based monitors, including 38&nbsp;North&nbsp;and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reported that commercial&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;imagery showed significant activity at the main pad after Wednesday's&nbsp;launch.
South&nbsp;Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could be presumed from&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's state media photos that the rocket was&nbsp;launched from a new pad.
South&nbsp;Korea&nbsp;has dispatched ships and aircraft to recover parts from the space&nbsp;launch&nbsp;vehicle, the military said.
Wednesday's&nbsp;launch&nbsp;was widely criticized, including by South&nbsp;Korea, Japan and the United States.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said any&nbsp;launch&nbsp;by Pyongyang using ballistic missile technology breaches Security Council resolutions, a spokesperson said.
In her statement, Kim said the criticisms of the&nbsp;launch&nbsp;were "self-contradiction" as the U.S. and other countries have already&nbsp;launched "thousands of&nbsp;satellites."
"The U.S. is a group of gangsters who would claim that even if the DPRK&nbsp;launches a&nbsp;satellite&nbsp;... it is illegal and threatening," she said, using the initials of&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's official name.
In a separate statement carried by KCNA,&nbsp;North&nbsp;Korea's vice foreign minister Kim Son Gyong criticized U.S.-led military drills in the region including a multinational anti-proliferation naval drill.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Chris Reese, Grant McCool and Gerry Doyle)

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