More likely, the Chinese or Russians were paying the NKs to provide a deniable testing facility.
Our military should NOT be dependent on a bunch of satellites which can be jammed by Third World belligerents, or SHOT DOWN in the first few minutes of a real war with a high-level adversary like China.
Second that.
Unlike the Arabs, the Chinese and the Russians are as smart as hell. A show down with either of these two very nasty customers will spell the ‘A’ in Asymmetrical Warfare.