Pyongyang has fired missiles into the sea in an apparent protest.
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The DPRK has twice launched a three-stage rocket, which was condemned as a disguised test of ballistic missile technology, from a stationary launch pad.
“Timing wise, today’s missile was a cannon salute on the Day of the Sun, leading up to the party congress, but now that it has failed, it is an embarrassment”, said Chang Gwang-il, a retired South Korean army general.
The Unification Ministry in South Korea suspected that Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, ordered the latest missile test.
A North Korean launch of a missile on the birthday of its revered founder appears to have failed, USA defence officials said.
North Korea test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile early Friday from its east coast, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said, but the test was apparently a failure.
Earlier on Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that a mobile launcher was spotted moving two Musudan missiles, possibly preparing for a test.
The announcements also help bolster support for the leadership of Kim Jong Un within the ruling elite, analysts say.
South Koean Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee said the 13 had been under pressure to meet their quota for hard currency remittances to Pyongyang and had become disillusioned with the North’s propaganda after being exposed to the foreign media.
The move was a response to the North’s fourth nuclear test in January and its launching of a satellite in February, both of which broke existing sanctions.
Pyongyang has claimed that it possessed a miniaturized nuclear warhead and mastered the technology of a re-entry vehicle, key to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
File photo shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspecting the test of a new-type anti-air guided weapon system.
Jeffrey Lewis, head of the East Asia programme at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies in California, said that the failure would “reinforce the persistent denial” about North Korea’s capabilities. However, the US and South Korea denounced the move as a cover for an intercontinental ballistic missile test.
The failed attempt took place on the birthday of North Korea’s late founder Kim Il Sung, at a time when the global community, including its most important ally China, has repeatedly urged Pyongyang not to carry out any more provocative acts in violation of United Nations resolutions.
“Japan is analyzing and collecting information in coordination with the United States and South Korea”.
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“There is an ample possibility that the North would launch them around Kim ll-Sung’s birthday”, Yonhap quoted the official as saying, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
