The missile was sacked around 11:30 a.m. local time but failed soon after launch, South Korea’s military said.
Advertisement
“The missile’s launch off the submarine went smoothly, but the flight at the initial stage was not successful”, the report reads.
Beijing said Friday it lodged complaints with the US and South Korean ambassadors over the decision to launch the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system.
The U.N. imposed strict sanctions against the North earlier this year after it conducted its fourth nuclear test and a long-range missile launch.
The missile was detected in the sea, southeast of the North Korean city of Sinpo, South Korea’s military said.
The North’s foreign ministry called the sanctions against Kim “the worst hostility and an open declaration of war”, vowing to take “the toughest countermeasures to resolutely shatter the hostility of the US”.
It noted that the North carried out back-to-back tests of a powerful new medium-range missile on June 22, which sparked swift global condemnation.
The decision to deploy THAAD is the latest move to squeeze the increasingly isolated North, which also includes a series of bilateral sanctions by Seoul and Washington as well as layers of United Nations sanctions.
Beijing has feared that could strengthen USA missile defense systems and weaken its own nuclear deterrent, although defense officials here said it would not make much difference to the US military.
The THAAD deployment in South Korea would also raise tensions between China and Japan which already has two THAAD radars stationed on its territory, Postol pointed out.
The U.S.is playing down concerns that its deployment of the missile defense system in South Korea will set back Chinese cooperation in countering North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has condemned the North Korean submarine-launched ballistic missile after South Korean officials reported that a ballistic missile has been launched off its eastern coast but failed midway.
“North Korea’s nuclear test and multiple ballistic missile test launches, including recent intermediate ballistic missile launches, are posing grave threats to the security and stability of South Korea and the Asia-Pacific region”, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said as it announced the deployment decision.
Advertisement
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.
