North Korea’s prestigious Kim Il Sung University is “intensifying” research on small form satellites, a paper published to the school’s website claimed this month.

A student of the School of Mechanical Engineering wrote in a June 8-dated paper, first reported Monday by the South Korean outlet North Korea Economy, that his department was "intensifying research of not only large satellites, but also picosatellites, to match the level of the worldwide trend and domestic aerospace sci-tech development."