SEOUL: North Korea said its attempt to launch a new military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure on Monday (May 27) when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight.
The attempt came just hours after Pyongyang issued a warning that it would try to launch a satellite by Jun 4, in what would have been its second spy satellite in orbit.
Instead, the launch became the nuclear-armed North’s latest failure, following two other fiery crashes last year. It successfully placed its first spy satellite in orbit in November.
“The launch of the new satellite carrier rocket failed when it exploded in mid-air during the flight of the first stage,” the deputy director general of North Korea’s National Aerospace Technology Administration said in a report carried by state media.
An initial analysis suggested that the cause was a newly developed liquid fuel rocket motor, but other possible causes were being investigated, the report said.
Officials in South Korea and Japan had earlier reported that the launch seemed to have failed.
North Korea fired the projectile on a southern path off its west coast at around 10.44pm, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
The JCS said it detected a large amount of debris from the rocket in the sea just two minutes after launch.
The object launched by North Korea disappeared over the Yellow Sea, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
“These launches are in violation of relevant security council resolutions and are a serious matter concerning the safety of our people,” Hayashi said.
The United States condemned the launch, “which incorporated technologies that are directly related to the DPRK’s ballistic missile program and took place in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions”, a State Department spokesperson said.
The launch came hours after China, South Korea, and Japan wrapped up a rare three-way summit in Seoul.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had called on North Korea not to go ahead with the launch. Chinese Premier Li Qiang did not mention the launch but called on all parties to lower tensions on the peninsula.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed a video of what appeared to be an orange dot flying into the night sky and then bursting into flames in an area close to the border between China and North Korea.
The launch sparked public alerts in several areas of Japan that were later withdrawn after it became clear the rocket would not fly over the islands.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-spy-satellite-launch-explosion-south-korea-japan-united-states-4367436
