Seoul, South Korea
The reported failures come ahead of a major North Korean ruling party meeting next week at which leader Kim Jong Un is believed to want to place his stamp more forcefully on a government he inherited after his dictator father’s death in late 2011.
The launches were believed to be the second and third attempted tests of a Musudan, a new intermediate-range missile that could one day be capable of reaching far-off U.S. military bases in Asia and the Pacific.
On Thursday morning, a projectile fired from a North Korean northeastern coastal town crashed a few seconds after liftoff, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said, requesting anonymity because of office rules. It wasn’t immediately known whether it crashed on land or into the sea. Then, in the evening, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North fired another Musudan missile near Wonsan but that launch also presumably failed. There were no other details.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command confirmed that North Korea attempted two missile launches that did not pose a threat to North America. It did not provide details in a brief statement.
The Pentagon said in a statement later Thursday that both launch attempts failed.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the launches a provocation and said it will try to increase international pressure on North Korea.
Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Motohide Yoshikawa said the U.N. Security Council is preparing a statement in response to the launches.