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Seoul, US say North Korean missile launch apparently failed North Korea’s missile launch has failed, South’s military says
(about 1 hour later)
SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korea missile launch meant to celebrate its founder’s birthday has apparently failed, South Korean and U.S. officials said Friday, an embarrassing setback in what was reportedly the inaugural test of a new, powerful mid-range missile. TOKYO — North Korea tried but failed to launch an intermediate-range missile Friday, American and South Korean military officials said, dealing the regime an embarrassing blow on the most important day of the year in the North Korean calendar.
The U.S. and South Korean officials provided few details, including the type of missile. But South Korea’s Yonhap news agency carried an unsourced report that a “Musudan” missile, which could one day be capable of reaching far-off U.S. military bases in Asia and the Pacific, exploded in the air a few seconds after liftoff. To mark the 104th anniversary of the birthday of the country’s "eternal president," Kim Il Sung, North Korea launched a missile from its East Coast at about 5:30 a.m. local time. But it deviated from a "normal" trajectory, an official from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters in Seoul.
A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters told The Associated Press that it appeared to be a Musudan missile but no definitive conclusion had been reached. “North Korea appears to have tried a missile launch from the East Sea [Sea of Japan] area early morning today, but it is presumed to have failed,” the official said.
Despite the failure, the North has another Musudan loaded on a mobile launcher and Pyongyang will likely fire it, according to South Korean and U.S. authorities, Yonhap reported. But South Korea's military is still on high alert. "We are preparing against the possibility that the North could carry out heavyweight provocations at any time, including the fifth nuclear test," a military official said, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking to reporters during a stop on the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, said that while the U.S. deemed the launch to be unsuccessful, it “was nonetheless another provocation by North Korea in a region that doesn’t need that kind of behavior.” [North Korea unveils homemade engine for missile capable of striking U.S.]
The launch comes as the two Koreas trade threats amid Pyongyang’s anger over annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that North Korea calls a rehearsal for an invasion. The North has recently fired a slew of missiles and artillery shells into the sea in an apparent protest against the drills. A U.S. defense official said that the U.S. Strategic Command systems had also “detected and tracked” the missile. “We assess that the launch failed,” he said.
The surge in belligerent rhetoric and nuclear and missile activity in the North may also be linked to leader Kim Jong Un’s preparations for a major ruling party meeting next month that analysts believe he will use to further solidify his autocratic rule. Some believe that Kim may try to use the country’s claims of recent nuclear and missile success as a way to turn domestic focus toward tackling the country’s abysmal economy. Initial analysis suggested that the missile was a Musudan, also known as a BM-25, the kind that South Korean authorities had detected being moved Thursday near Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly, said the U.S. Strategic Command systems have detected and tracked what officials assessed as a failed North Korean missile launch. The Musudan is an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of traveling 1,500 to 2,500 miles — putting the U.S. territory of Guam within reach — and of carrying a 1.3-ton nuclear warhead, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
“We strongly condemn North Korea’s missile test in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions, which explicitly prohibit North Korea’s use of ballistic missile technology,” the official said. North Korea has displayed the Musudan at its military parades and is believed to have supplied assembly kits for the missile to Iran, but it had never tested this model of missile before.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command said the missile launched from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America. Sketchfab
The South’s Defense Ministry said it wasn’t immediately known whether the missile fired from an eastern costal area Friday morning was a short-range or mid-range missile. Jeffrey Lewis, head of the East Asia program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, said that the failure would “reinforce the persistent denial” about North Korea’s capabilities.
The ministry refused to say why it believes the North Korean launch appeared to be a failure. “But in fact, they will have learned a lot from this launch. Not as much as they would have learned if it had succeeded, but still something,” Lewis said.
The North’s launch came amid speculation in the South that its rival was preparing to test a medium-range missile with a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,180 miles) — enough to reach U.S. military installments in Japan and Guam. Foreign experts have nicknamed the missile “Musudan” after the village in the northeast where North Korea has a launchpad. The Musudan uses the same sort of engine as the submarine-launched ballistic missile that North Korea tested last year but which also failed.
North Korea has never flight-tested a Musudan, though it unveiled the missile during a 2010 military parade. South Korean defense officials said North Korea has deployed Musudan missiles since 2007. “Clearly they have a problem, but maybe next time it will work. It took them a couple of launches to get the Taepodong-2 going,” Lewis said, referring to the ballistic-missile technology that has now put two North Korean satellites into orbit.
Friday is the birthday anniversary of the late Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather and the nation’s founder. North Korea has occasionally used such celebrations to stage nuclear or missile tests that outsiders consider provocations. At the same time, North Korea has been making a series of claims about technological advances, from building solid-fuel rocket engines to miniaturizing nuclear warheads. The regime recently claimed that it could send a ­nuclear-tipped missile to the U.S. mainland.
In the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, citizens in formal clothing lined up to bow deeply before huge statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, his son and the father of Kim Jong Un, and laid brightly colored flowers at the statues’ feet. [North Korea claims it could wipe out Manhattan with a hydrogen bomb]
North Korea has unnerved the international community this year with an escalating campaign of belligerence. This includes a nuclear test in January, its fourth, and a long-range rocket launch in February, as well as nuclear threats against the United States and Seoul. Although this has not been proved, U.S. military officials and nonproliferation experts say that North Korea is clearly working toward this goal. The Musudan test could be part of this program.
There is debate among analysts about the exact state of the North’s nuclear capabilities — many believe Pyongyang has a handful of crude nuclear bombs — but each nuclear and missile test pushes them farther along in their goal of a nuclear-armed arsenal of long-range missiles. At a hearing of a Senate Armed Services subcommittee this week, Brian McKeon, a senior Pentagon official, said that North Korea’s weapons and missile programs pose a growing threat to the United States and its allies in East Asia.
___ North Korea is “seeking to develop longer-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the United States and continues efforts to bring [a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile] to operational capacity,” he said.
AP writers Lolita C. Baldor in Manila and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. Although an untested long-range missile was unlikely to be reliable, North Korea’s successful satellite launches showed it was mastering the technologies that would be needed, McKeon said.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said North Korea’s failed firing of mid-range ballistic missile on Friday “the latest in a string of sabre-rattling that, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere.”
Since Kim Jong Un ordered his military to conduct a fourth nuclear test in January — which North Korea claimed as a hydrogen-bomb explosion, although outside experts are highly skeptical — there has been a steady stream of projectiles emanating from North Korea.
In February, Kim oversaw the launch of what North Korea said was a satellite launch vehicle but which was widely viewed as part of an intercontinental ballistic missile program. Since then, there have been numerous short-range missile launches and rockets fired into the Sea of Japan.
[North Korea has new rocket system that could strike Seoul this year, South Korea warns]
North Korea is banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions from launching ballistic missiles or carrying out nuclear tests, but it continues to do so.
The international community has responded to North Korea’s latest provocations with tough sanctions aimed at cutting off the state’s ability to procure parts and finance its weapons-of-mass-destruction program.
This push coincided with two-month-long drills between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, during which they are practicing their response to the collapse of North Korea. The drills, which conclude at the end of this month, include computer-simulated “decapitation strikes” on the North Korean leadership.
Amid this background of heightened tensions, North Korea has been preparing for two key events — the anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth and the first congress of the communist Workers’ Party in 36 years.
The country is in the grip of a “70-day campaign” to prepare for the congress, set for early next month for the first time since 1980. Analysts expect Kim Jong Un to use the event to bolster his legitimacy.
Kim, who is 33, is not only incredibly young by standards of Korea, where age is revered, but also did not have the kind of long preparation and introduction his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, enjoyed. 
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