North Korea reported that the space rocket it launched with a reconnaissance satellite on board crashed into the Yellow Sea after reporting a technical failure.
However, Pyongyang reported that it will attempt another launch of this type soon, according to a state statement, according to the AP agency.
The satellite was launched on a Chollima-1 rocket, a new type of projectile, at 6:27 local time from the Sohae space launch station (northwest of the country), the KCNA news agency reported.
The North Korean state media indicated that after the separation of the first phase of the rocket, “the ignition of the engine of the second was abnormal, so it lost propulsion and crashed into the West Sea,” the name given to the Yellow Sea in the two Koreas.
It should be remembered that North Korea had reported that it would launch the spy satellite in June to “monitor the military movements of the United States and its partners in real time”, but the operation was finally brought forward.
A spokesman for the North Korean National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) quoted by KCNA indicated that “the failures will be investigated in detail” and that “scientific and technological measures will be urgently devised to solve them and carry out a second launch as soon as possible after several partial tests”.
Shortly before the North Korean announcement, the South Army had already reported that the launched space rocket had crashed in the Yellow Sea, according to the EFE agency.
“The projectile flew over the sea west of Baengnyeong Island and landed about 200 kilometers west of Eocheong Island (50 kilometers west of the South Korean coast and 180 kilometers southwest of Seoul) due to abnormal flight,” said the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in a brief statement, the agency picked up.
The North Korean launch caused the activation of anti-missile alerts in Seoul and in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa, where the projectile would have flown over, urging the possible evacuation of citizens, according to the BBC.
The Japanese authorities withdrew the alert within twenty minutes after considering that there was no risk of an impact on national territory, while the Seoul metropolitan government also lifted the recommendation to prepare to evacuate.
Seoul and Tokyo, which called emergency meetings to analyze the situation, have denounced that the launch would actually be a covert test to test ballistic missile technology, something punishable by the UN sanctions against Pyongyang.
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