North Korea fails to launch new missile after previous launches anger Japan, South Korea

Japan Conducts Drill Against North Korean Missile

The US military detected the failed North Korean missile launch attempt on Wednesday, with a missile exploding within seconds of its launch.

“US Pacific Command detected what we assess was a failed North Korean missile launch attempt ... in the vicinity of Kalma,” Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman for US Pacific Command, said.

“A missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch,” Benham said, adding that work was being carried out on a more detailed assessment.

South Korea’s defence ministry said it was also aware of the missile launch failure, two weeks after Pyongyang launched four rockets in what it called a drill for an attack on US bases in Japan.

The North fired one missile from an air base in the eastern port of Wonsan Wednesday morning, but the launch “is believed to have failed”, Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.

“We are in the process of analysing what type of missile it was,” it added.

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North Korea has failed to launched a new set of missiles, according to reports. Picture: APSource:AP

Japan’s Kyodo news service, citing an unidentified government source, said the missiles were possibly launched from North Korea’s east, adding that there was information that the launches were a failure.

Nuclear-armed North Korea launched four ballistic missiles earlier this month, with three landing provocatively close to America’s ally Japan.

The launches come as Seoul and Washington hold large-scale annual joint military exercises that always infuriate Pyongyang, which sees them as a rehearsal for invasion.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting the ground jet test of newly developed high-thrust engine at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in North Korea earlier this month. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

American officials said earlier this week that the US military expected another North Korean missile launch in the next several days. The officials said the U.S. had increased its surveillance over the North and had detected a North Korean missile launcher being moved, as well as the construction of VIP seating in Wonsan.

This undated picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on March 7 shows the launch of four ballistic missiles by the Korean People's Army (KPA) during a military drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Picture AFP photo/KCNA via KNSSource:AFP

The North’s state media said Sunday that it had conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine, which it hailed as a breakthrough for the country’s space program.

Weapons experts say such technology has applications for the North’s ballistic missile program.

People watch news footage of a missile launch on a giant television screen outside the main railway station in Pyongyang on March 7. Picture: AFPSource:AFP

ON A MISSILE QUEST

Nuclear-armed North Korea is under several sets of United Nations sanctions over its atomic and ballistic missile programmes.

It is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with an atomic warhead, and staged two nuclear tests and multiple missile launches last year.

Earlier this month it launched a flight of four ballistic missiles, with three landing provocatively close to Japan in what Pyongyang described as practice for attacks on US military bases in Japan.

On Sunday, the North’s leader Kim Jong-Un personally oversaw and hailed a “successful” test of what Pyongyang said was a new rocket engine — which can be easily repurposed for use in missiles.

Seoul said that experiment showed “meaningful progress” in the North’s missile capabilities.

Analysts’ opinions are varied on how advanced the North’s missile technologies are but many agree that Pyongyang has made significant progress in recent years.

The engine test was apparently timed to coincide with a recent Asia trip by new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who warned that regional tensions had reached a “dangerous level.” Washington would drop the “failed” approach of “strategic patience” with Pyongyang, Tillerson said, warnING that US military action was an “option on the table” if necessary — a sharp divergence from China’s insistence on a diplomatic approach to its neighbour, which it has long protected.

This week the North’s state news agency KCNA boasted that Tillerson had “admitted the failure” of US policy to denuclearise the nation.

Pyongyang insists that it needs nuclear weapons for self-defence against “hostile enemies” including the South and its ally the US.