North
Korea attempted to fire a missile from its
east coast early on Tuesday but the launch appears to have failed, South Korean
officials said, in what would be the latest in a string of unsuccessful
ballistic missile tests by the isolated country.
The launch attempt took place at around 5:20 a.m. Seoul time (04:20 p.m.
EDT), said the officials, who asked not to be identified, without elaborating.
Tension in Northeast Asia has been high since North Korea
conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite
launch and test launches of various missiles.
Japan
put its military alert on Monday for a possible North Korean ballistic missile
launch.
"We have no reports of any damage in Japan. We are
gathering and analyzing data. The defense ministry is prepared to respond to
any situation," Japanese Minister of Defence Gen Nakatani told a media
briefing.
"North Korea
shows no sign of abandoning the development of nuclear missiles and so we will
continue to work closely with the U.S.
and South Korea in response
and maintain a close watch on North
Korea," Nakatani said.
South Korea's
Yonhap News Agency said it appeared North Korea had attempted to launch
an intermediate-range Musudan missile. North
Korea attempted three test launches of the Musudan in
April, all of which failed, U.S.
and South Korean officials have said.
Yonhap quoted a South Korean government source as saying the
missile was likely to have exploded at about the time it lifted off from a
mobile launcher.
The flurry of weapons technology tests this year came in the
run-up to the first congress in 36 years of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party
early this month, where young leader Kim Jong Un further consolidated his
control.
Tuesday's attempted launch appears to have been its first
missile test since then, and experts have said it was unusual to test-fire a
missile so soon after a previous failure.
The South Korean military said Pyongyang's continuous missile launches could
stem from Kim's order in March for further tests of nuclear warheads and
ballistic missiles.
"They must've been in a rush. Maybe Kim Jong Un was
very upset about the failures," said Lee Choon-geun, senior research
fellow at South Korea's
state-run Science and Technology Policy Institute.
REPEATED FAILURES
North Korea
has never had a successful launch of the Musudan missile, which theoretically
has the range to reach any part of Japan
and the U.S. territory of Guam.
North
Korea is believed to have roughly 20 to 30
Musudan missiles, according to South Korean media, which officials said were
first deployed in around 2007.
"It could have cracks and something wrong with the
welding," Lee said of possible causes for the latest failure. "But
deployment before test-firing these to complete development seems
unusual."
The attempted launch took place near the east coast city of Wonson, one of the South
Korean officials said, the same area where previous Musudan tests had taken
place.
Separately, Japan's
Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday that career diplomat Ri Su Yong, one of North Korea's highest-profile officials, would
visit China
on Tuesday.
There was no indication of any link between the latest
failed missile launch and Ri's visit to China.
China is
reclusive North Korea's only
major ally but has been angered by Pyongyang's
nuclear and missile tests and signed up to tough UN sanctions against the
reclusive country.
Ri was North
Korea's foreign minister until he was named
a member of the politburo during the recent Workers' Party congress.
/By Reuters/