South Korea reports missile fizzle in North
Pair of launch attempts were no threat to America, Strategic Command says
North Korea made two failed attempts at launching intermediaterange ballistic missiles Thursday, South Korean defense officials said, the latest in a string of nuclear and missile tests designed to display Pyongyang ’s military muscle.
South Korean military officials said both missiles failed to launch, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. Strategic Command said it detected and tracked two attempted launches about 12 hours apart. The launches “did not pose a threat to North America,” the command said in a statement. It said U.S. military personnel remain “vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and are fully committed to working closely with our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security.”
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said the North has tested Musudan missiles in recent weeks and launched a missile April 15 that exploded a few seconds after liftoff. That launch may have been timed to coincide with the 104th anniversary of the birthday of Kim Il Sung, the country’s late founder.
All the launches came before a major meeting of Pyongyang ’s ruling Workers’ Party next week.
North Korea may have deployed about 50 Musudan missiles across the nation in the past decade, Yonhap said.
A Musudan, or BM-25, could be capable of traveling 2,500 miles, conceivably posing a threat to South Korea, Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam.
Tuesday, South Korean officials said the North was preparing another midrange missile test and could conduct a fifth nuclear test.
Saturday, the North claimed it successfully fired a ballistic missile from a submarine for the first time.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency gave the submarine launch major play on its Englishlanguage website.
Thursday’s ballistic missile test was not mentioned on the KCNA website.
A series of nuclear weapon and ballistic missile tests by Pyongyang in recent months have raised tensions in the region and brought tighter international sanctions on the North. Pyongyang in turn has blamed South Korea and the United States for those tensions, citing joint military exercises involving hundreds of thousands of military personnel.