North Korea launched a spy missile that crashed in South Korean waters

North Korea reported today that space rocket which was launched this Wednesday with reconnaissance satellite the ship crashed into the Yellow Sea, in South Korean waters, due to a technical failure and will soon try to relaunch this type.

The satellite was launched in The Chollima-1 rocket, a new type of missile, from the Sohae space launch station, the KCNA agency reported and Efe collected. North Korean state media said that after the separation of the first stage of the rocket, “the ignition of the second engine was abnormal, causing it to lose power and crash into the West Sea” (the name given to the Yellow Sea in the two Koreas).

A spokesman for North Korea’s National Aviation Development Administration (NADA), quoted by KCNA, indicated that “the malfunctions will be thoroughly investigated” and that “scientific and technological measures will be urgently devised to solve them and a second launch will be carried out as soon as possible after several partial tests.

Shortly before North Korea’s announcement, the South’s military had already reported that a launched space rocket had crashed into the Yellow Sea. “The missile crossed 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 an abnormal flight,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. (JCS) in a short press release. In fact, the South Korean military reported after discovery of a space rocket fragment about 200 kilometers west of Eochong Island. Images shared by the South Korean military show that what was found is a large cylindrical fragment (at least 2-3 meters in diameter and 2-3 meters in height).

South Korean military sources and the Japanese government also indicated to local media that the missile disappeared from radar before reaching an area where the North Korean regime had earlier this week warned of possible fallout of various stages of the missile and its cladding.

The North Korean launch triggered the activation missile reports around 6:30 local time in Seoul and in the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa (southwest), where the missile would fly over, calling for the possible evacuation of citizens. Japanese authorities withdrew the warning within twenty minutes after deeming there was no threat of a strike on national territory, while Seoul’s city government also lifted a recommendation to prepare to evacuate.

Pyongyang confirmed a day earlier that it will launch in the coming days from Sohae a a space rocket loaded with a military reconnaissance satellitein line with the goals of weapon modernization.

Seoul and Tokyo, which called emergency meetings to analyze the situation, denounced the launch as a secret test to test ballistic missile technology, something condemned by UN sanctions which burden Pyongyang.

The United States also criticized the failed launch, which, according to the White House, “used ballistic missile technology”. “This alleged space launch involved technologies directly related to the intercontinental ballistic missile program of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” Adam Hodge, a spokesman for the government’s National Security Council, said in a statement.