SEOUL: North Korea’s attempt to put the country’s first spy satellite into space failed on Wednesday in a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to boost his military capabilities as tensions with the United States and South Korea rise.
After an unusually quick admission of failure, North Korea vowed to conduct a second launch after learning what went wrong with its rocket lift-off. It suggests Kim remains determined to expand his weapons arsenal and apply more pressure on Washington and Seoul while diplomacy is stalled.
South Korea and Japan briefly urged residents to take shelter after the launch.
The South Korean military said it was salvaging an object presumed to be part of the crashed North Korean rocket in waters 200 kilometres (124 miles) west of the southwestern island of Eocheongdo. Later, the Defence Ministry released photos of a white, metal cylinder it described as a suspected rocket part.
A satellite launch by North Korea is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that ban the country from conducting any launch based on ballistic technology. Observers say North Korea’s previous satellite launches helped improve its long-range missile technology, though the latest launch likely was more focused on deploying a spy satellite. North Korea has already shown it may have the ability to strike all of the US mainland after years of intercontinental ballistic missile tests, though outside experts say the North has yet to acquire functioning nuclear missiles.
The newly developed Chollima-1 rocket, which was carrying the Malligyong-1 satellite, was launched at 6.37 a.m. at the North’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in the northwest. The rocket crashed off the Korean Peninsula’s western coast after it lost thrust following the separation of its first and second stages, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.