Officials of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are on the rhetorical defensive after the failed launch of the country's long-anticipated spy satellite rocket.

The hermit kingdom has released rare photos of the aborted launch and high-ranking members of the nation's regime are defending North Korea's right to continue pursuing the miliary technology.

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The rocket – launched from North Korea early Wednesday morning – put neighboring South Korea and Japan on high alert. 

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of dictator Kim Jong Un, lashed out at the U.S. National Security Council on Thursday after a council spokesperson condemned the launch.

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"If the DPRK’s satellite launch should be particularly censured, the U.S. and all other countries, which have already launched thousands of satellites, should be denounced," Kim Yo Jong said. "This is nothing but sophism of self-contradiction."

Jong, who carries innumerable titles and positions within the Workers' Party of Korea, is speculated to function as her brother's de facto second-in-command.

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"The far-fetched logic that only the DPRK should not be allowed to do so according to the (U.N. Security Council’s) ‘resolution’ which bans the use of ballistic rocket technology irrespective of its purpose, though other countries are doing so, is clearly a gangster-like and wrong one of seriously violating the DPRK’s right to use space and illegally oppressing it," she said.

Kim Yo Jong went on to promise that the spy satellite project would continue and eventually be a success.

"It is certain that the DPRK’s military reconnaissance satellite will be correctly put on space orbit in the near future and start its mission," she added.