Launch failure for NK’s latest missiles
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TWO North Korean missiles, believed to be powerful intermediate-range examples, failed to launch yesterday, South Korean defense officials said, bringing the total of apparent failures in recent weeks to three.
The launches were likely the second and third attempted tests of a Musudan, a new intermediate-range missile that could one day be capable of reaching far-off US military bases in Asia and the Pacific.
Yesterday morning, a projectile fired from a North Korean northeastern coastal town crashed a few seconds after liftoff, a South Korean official said. It wasn’t immediately known whether it crashed on land or into the sea.
In the evening, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired another Musudan missile near Wonsan but that launch also presumably failed. There were no other details.
South Korea’s foreign ministry called the launches a provocation and said it will try to increase international pressure on North Korea.
The failed launches come amid North Korean anger over annual South Korean-US military drills that it calls a rehearsal for an invasion. North Korea has fired many missiles and artillery shells into the sea in recent months in an apparent protest against the drills, which end tomorrow.
Earlier this week, South Korean media reported that North Korea had placed a Musudan missile on standby for an impending launch. The reports said the missile was one of two Musudans North Korea had earlier deployed in the northeast.
South Korean and US officials said there was a North Korean missile launch on April 15, the birthday of North Korea’s late founder, but they have not officially confirmed it was a Musudan. US officials said that launch ended in failure.
Musudan missiles have a potential range of about 3,500 kilometers, which would put US military bases in Guam within striking distance. North Korea is also pushing to develop a nuclear-armed long-range missile capable of reaching the US mainland, but South Korea believes it does not yet possess such a missile.
Before this month’s suspected launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, though one was seen during a parade in 2010 in Pyongyang.
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