Seoul says North Korean missile test fails, bringing string of crashes to three

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea failed to launch two intermediaterange ballistic missiles Thursday, the South Korean Defense Ministry said, adding to a string of unsuccessful weapons tests in the past two weeks.

The first attempted launch of the powerful Musudan missile crashed into the sea seconds after ignition. Hours after that attempt, North Korea fired another missile of the same type but that test also failed, the ministry said.

Thursday’s attempts bring the total failures in launching the Musudan — one of the North’s most powerful missiles deployed or under development — to three in the past two weeks, according to South Korean officials.

The successive failures are a potential embarrassment for North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, just days before a rare congress of his ruling Workers’ Party, the North’s biggest political meeting in decades.

U.N. warning

Outside analysts had expected a dramatic gesture like a Musudan launch, or possibly the country’s fifth nuclear test, in an attempt to burnish Kim’s image before the congress, which begins on May 6 and is widely seen as a platform for the young leader to bolster his grip on power.

On Thursday, President Park Geun-hye of South Korea said there were signs that another nuclear test by North Korea may be imminent. Such a test would trigger more sanctions.

North Korea first launched a Musudan on April 15, a test that ended in what officials in Seoul and Washington called a spectacular failure as the projectile exploded shortly after liftoff.

After that test, the U.N. Security Council issued a statement warning increased sanctions if the North’s provocations continued. North Korea is banned by the Security Council from testing ballistic missiles.

North Korea flouted that warning Thursday by firing the two Musudan missiles from sites near Wonsan, a port on North Korea’s east coast, the South Korean Defense Ministry said. South Korean and U.S. officials were investigating the cause of the failure, it said.

Could reach Guam

The Musudan missile has a range of 1,860 to 2,180 miles, long enough to reach U.S. military bases in Guam. South Korean military officials say the Musudan, a modified version of a submarine-launched missile from the Soviet military, was designed to carry nuclear warheads, but it remains unclear whether the North is capable of making nuclear weapons small and sophisticated enough to be mounted on such a missile.