The missile’s engine ignited successfully at first, only for the projectile to explode moments later at a height of around 6 miles between the Korean peninsula and Japan, reported South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
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While the submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) fired “normally”, the JCS estimated that the missile’s “initial flight was unsuccessful”.
“Our military strongly denounces such provocative acts by North Korea”.
After months of talks, Seoul and Washington were in the final stages of recommending a location in South Korea to install the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
North Korea has already been sanctioned heavily because of its nuclear weapons programme.
North Korean efforts to develop submarine-launched missile systems are a serious concern for rivals and neighbors because missiles from submerged vessels are harder to detect in advance.
Meanwhile in the South China Sea, the Chinese navy conducted combat drills near its southern island province of Hainan and the Paracel islands, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday.
A diplomatic source said the North’s missile launch could become a testbed for Chinese and Russian cooperation against North Korea.
South Korea’s mock missiles are displayed next to North Korea’s mock Scud-B, left, at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, July 8, 2016.
North Korea said the footage showed that it had ballistic missile technology which would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine, in defiance of a United Nations ban.
“We don’t consider the missile launch to be anything that would immediately affect Japan’s national security directly”, he told public broadcaster NHK.
The North’s latest show of force came a day after South Korea and the United States announced they will deploy an advanced USA missile defense system in South Korea to counter threats posed by North Korea’s missiles.
“Every time the North Koreans test their nuclear and missile capabilities, they learn something, and get better”, said John Delury, an associate professor at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies, in Seoul, in an interview earlier this year.
The THAAD will be delivered to the 28,500 troops the United States have in South Korea, as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean war. That was widely seen as a technological advance for the North after several test failures.
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South Korea and the U.S. have agreed to deploy the Thaad anti-ballistic missile system on the Korean peninsula, a move that drew immediate condemnation from China.
