North Korea said it had successfully placed its first spy satellite in orbit and vowed to launch more in the near future, defying international condemnation from the United States and its allies.

A rocket carrying the satellite blasted off on Tuesday night from North Pyongan province, flew along its designated path and “accurately put the reconnaissance satellite ‘Malligyong-1’ on its orbit,” the state-run news agency KCNA reported.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, was on hand to witness the blast off, and congratulated the scientists and technicians behind the mission, it added.

The United States quickly condemned the launch as a “brazen violation” of UN sanctions and said it could destabilise the region.

South Korean officials said the latest launch attempt likely incorporated technical assistance from Moscow as part of a growing partnership that has seen North Korea send millions of artillery shells to Russia.

Russia and North Korea have denied such arms deals, but are publicly promising deeper cooperation.

Following Tuesday’s launch, Seoul vowed to resume surveillance operations along the border with North Korea that had been suspended in 2018 as part of an agreement with Pyongyang to reduce military tensions.

North Korea’s previous efforts to put a spy satellite into orbit in May and August both failed.

Seoul, Tokyo and Washington had repeatedly warned Pyongyang not to proceed with another launch, which would violate successive rounds of UN resolutions.

North Korea’s move came just over a week before South Korea plans to send its first spy satellite into space on a Falcon 9 rocket operated by US company SpaceX, which was co-founded by the tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The North’s space agency will send up multiple spy satellites in the near future to continue securing surveillance capabilities over South Korea and other regions of interest to North Korea’s armed forces, KCNA reported.

“Even if they call it a satellite, the launch of an item that uses ballistic missile technology is clearly a violation of the relevant United Nations resolutions,” Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister, said, adding that he condemned the launch “in the strongest possible terms”.

Japan, which first reported the launch, had earlier told residents in Okinawa to take cover inside buildings or underground over the country’s emergency broadcasting system.

It later said the rocket appeared to have flown over and past Okinawa towards the Pacific Ocean, and lifted its emergency warning.