North Korean technicians inspect an Unha-3 rocket at the Sohae Satellite Launch Station in Tongchang-ri on April 8, 2012.
Pedro Ugarte | AFP | Getty Images
North Korea said its attempt to launch a new military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure on Monday when a newly developed rocket motor exploded in flight.
The attempt came just hours after Pyongyang issued a warning that it would attempt to launch a satellite by June 4, the second spy satellite in orbit.
Instead, the launch became the latest failure for nuclear-armed North Korea, following two other fiery incidents last year. It succeeded in putting the first spy satellite into orbit in November.
The Deputy Director-General of North Korea's National Aerospace Technology Administration said in a report carried by state media that “the launch of the rocket carrying the new satellite failed when it exploded in the air during the first stage flight.”
The report stated that preliminary analysis indicates that the cause is a newly developed liquid-fueled rocket engine, but other possible causes are being investigated.
Officials in South Korea and Japan had previously reported that the launch appeared to have failed.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired the projectile on a southern road off its western coast at around 10:44 p.m. (1344 GMT).
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected a large amount of missile debris in the sea just two minutes after its launch.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that the object launched by North Korea disappeared over the Yellow Sea.
“These launches violate relevant Security Council resolutions and are a serious matter for the safety of our people,” Hayashi said.
A US State Department spokesman said the United States condemned the launch “which included technologies directly related to the DPRK's ballistic missile program and was conducted in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”
The launch came hours after China, South Korea and Japan concluded a rare trilateral summit in Seoul.
South Korean President Yeon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called on North Korea not to go ahead with the launch. Chinese Premier Li Qiang did not mention the missile launch, but called on all parties to reduce tensions on the peninsula.
NHK showed a video of what appears to be an orange dot flying in the night sky and then catching fire in an area near the border between China and North Korea.
The launch sparked public alerts in several areas of Japan, which were later withdrawn after it became clear that the missile would not fly over the islands.
Several failures and one success
North Korea's first attempt to launch a Chollima-1 missile via a new satellite ended on May 31 last year after the failure of the second stage. State media blamed this setback on the new unstable and unreliable engine and fuel system.
South Korea recovered the wreckage of that satellite from the sea and said analysis showed it had no meaningful use as a reconnaissance platform.
Another attempt in August also ended in failure, as the rocket booster stages encountered problems that led to the payloads falling into the sea.
North Korea's space authorities had described the August failure after the rocket's booster encountered a problem in its third stage as “not a major problem” in terms of the overall reliability of the rocket system.
In February, US space experts said North Korea's first spy satellite, dubbed Maejeong-1, was “alive”, after detecting changes in its orbit that suggested Pyongyang was successfully controlling the spacecraft – despite… Although her abilities are still unknown.
North Korean state media reported that the satellite transmitted images of the Pentagon and the White House, among other areas, but did not publish any of the images.
The successful launch in November was the first after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made a rare trip abroad in September and toured Russia's newest space launch center, where President Vladimir Putin promised to help Pyongyang build satellites.
Neither country explained the extent of this future aid, which could violate UN Security Council resolutions against North Korea.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing an unnamed senior South Korean defense official, that Russian experts visited North Korea to help with its satellite and space missile program.
Pyongyang said it needs a military reconnaissance satellite to enhance monitoring of the military activities of the United States and South Korea.
