North Korean projectile believed to have exploded soon after launch, South Korea says
This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 10 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) inspecting the country's Aerospace Development Administration in Pyongyang.
By Brad Lendon and Gawon Bae, CNN
A North Korean projectile is presumed to have exploded soon after launch Wednesday, the South Korean military said, a failure in what would have been the Kim Jong Un regime’s 10th such launch this year.
The explosion is believed to have come around an altitude of 20 kilometers (12.5 miles), a South Korean military official said.
South Korea said the projectile was launched from the area of Sunan, near the capital of Pyongyang.
North Korea’s previous two launches, on February 26 and March 4, which were also from the Sunan area, were intended to test a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, the US Defense Department said last week.
South Korean and US intelligence authorities are continuing to analyze the details of Wednesday’s failed launch, South Korea officials said in a text sent to reporters.
In a statement last week, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby strongly condemned the recent spate of North Korean launches, describing them as a “brazen violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
On Tuesday, the US military staged exercises on and around the Korean Peninsula to show its readiness in the wake of North Korean activity, including simulating ballistic missile defense systems.
The US Army’s 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade moved to a remote location, “occupying its wartime defensive position, emplacing the Patriot missile system, and executing air and missile defense operations under a simulated combat scenario,” US Forces Korea said in a press release.
And at sea, F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets flying off the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln along with US Air Force assets based in the region put on a show of force in the Yellow Sea off the western coast of South Korea, according to a statement from the US Navy’s 7th Fleet in Japan.
The statement also said the US has increased intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities in the Yellow Sea.
“We have made clear our growing concern over the significant increase in DPRK’s (North Korea’s) missile testing, and we will continue to take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the United States and our allies,” the statement from 7th Fleet spokesperson Lt. Nicholas Lingo said.
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