Pyongyang, November 22 (KCNA) -- The National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea successfully launched the new-type carrier rocket "Chollima-1" loaded with the reconnaissance satellite "Malligyong-1" at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province, at 22:42:28 on November 21, Juche 112 (2023).
The carrier rocket "Chollima-1" flew normally along the preset flight track and accurately put the reconnaissance satellite "Malligyong-1" on its orbit at 22:54:13, 705s after the launch.
The launch of reconnaissance satellite is a legitimate right of the DPRK for strengthening its self-defensive capabilities and it will make a significant contribution to definitely ramping up the war preparedness of the armed forces of the Republic in conformity with the security environment created in and around the country owing to the enemies' dangerous military moves.
Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, oversaw the launch on the spot.
He was accompanied by Kim Jong Sik, vice department director of the WPK Central Committee, and Jang Chang Ha, general director of the DPRK General Missile Bureau.
The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch and warmly congratulated all the cadres, scientists and technicians of the NATA and relevant institutions on having made a great contribution to enhancing the Republic's war deterrent and most correctly and excellently implementing the resolution of the Eighth Congress of the WPK.
The NATA is to present to the 9th Plenary Meeting of the 8th WPK Central Committee a plan for continuing to secure the capability to reconnoiter the south Korean region and the region of operational interest of the DPRK armed forces by additionally launching several reconnaissance satellites in a short span of time. -0-
http://kcna.kp/en/article/q/1eb1892a9d329f7cd348008b6bd315bd.kcmsf
mirror https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1700611622-680414227/dprk-natas-report-on-successful-launch-of-reconnaissance-satellite/
KCNA kp is a news site controlled by the DPRK government. You can see more photos if you click on the photo button in the top right corner.
'Hot staging' is not 'highly experimental'. It is the standard for Soyuz rockets and has been in common use since the 60's. Difficult to call a practice like that experimental if there are over 1000 case studies to run from.
That said, Starship was designed with cold-staging in mind, and I'm not a rocket scientist or aerospace engineer, but to my general knowledge and experience it is not a great sign when you are making a huge thermo-dynamics staging change like that after most of your parts are already designed. The amount of time and energy that will have to be made in order to make sure every part that is possibly going to be affected is changed properly is massive.
I'd say it's almost more challenging than designing from the ground up. Not impossible, but the sheer changes in engineering involved has to be worse than any video game crunch. If they actually pull this off, I'll shut my mouth, but it would be a testament to an extremely detail-oriented engineering team, something that is not really in Musk or SpaceX's 'move fast and break things' mantra.