TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
SKorean military says new NKorean missile launch fails
North Korea on Wednesday apparently failed yet again to launch a powerful new Musudan mid-range missile, US and South Korean military officials said, its fifth such reported flop since April.
Change Size
A man watches a TV news program reporting about a missile launch of North Korea, at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday. A North Korean missile launch likely failed on Tuesday, according to South Korea's military, the latest in a string of high-profile failures that tempers somewhat recent worries that Pyongyang was pushing quickly toward its goal of a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach America's mainland. The letters read on top left, "Fail, North Korea's Musudan missile." (AP/Lee Jin-man)
N
orth Korea on Wednesday apparently failed yet again to launch a powerful new Musudan mid-range missile, US and South Korean military officials said, its fifth such reported flop since April.
Despite the repeated failures, the North's persistence in testing the Musudan worries Seoul, Tokyo and Washington because the missile's potential 3,500-kilometer (2,180-mile) range puts US military bases in Asia and the Pacific within its striking range.
Each new test also presumably provides valuable insights to North Korean scientists and military officials as they push toward their goal of a nuclear and missile program that can threaten the US mainland. Pyongyang earlier this year conducted a nuclear test and launched a long-range rocket that outsiders say was a cover for a test of banned missile technology.
A statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said a suspected Musudan launch failed but gave no further details on the early-morning firing from near the east coast city of Wonsan.
A U.S. official also said the launch appeared to be another failure, adding that the US was assessing exactly what had happened. The official wasn't authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.
In April, North Korea attempted unsuccessfully to launch three suspected Musudan missiles, but all exploded in midair or crashed, according to South Korean defense officials. Earlier this month, North Korea had another missile launch failure. South Korean officials didn't identify the type of missile launched on June 1, but South Korea's Yonhapnews agency said it was also a Musudan.
Before April's launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, although one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in Pyongyang, its capital.
The launches appear linked to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's order in March for more nuclear and ballistic missile tests. The order was an apparent response to springtime US-South Korean military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
Since the end of those military drills, Pyongyang has repeated called for the resumption of talks with rival Seoul, but the South has rejected the overtures. It wants the North to first take steps toward nuclear disarmament. Pyongyang says its rivals must negotiate with it as an established nuclear power, something Washington and Seoul refuse to do.
Despite the repeated missile failures, the launch attempts show the North is pushing hard to upgrade its missile capability in defiance of US-led international pressure. The North was slapped with the strongest UN sanctions in two decades after it conducted a fourth nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year.
Earlier Tuesday, at a Washington briefing, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that if North Korea were to conduct another missile test, it would violate UN resolutions and "be another provocative action. So we certainly would urge North Korea to refrain from doing that sort of thing."
North Korea has recently claimed a series of breakthroughs in its push to build a long-range nuclear missile that can strike the American mainland. But South Korean officials have said the North doesn't yet possess such a weapon.
The North, however, has already deployed a variety of missiles that can reach most targets in South Korea and Japan, including American military bases in the two countries.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea to deter possible aggression from North Korea. (bbn)
Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
