North Korea’s missile test ends in mid-air explosion: South Korea military

Seoul: North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, but the missile exploded in the air, South Korea’s military said, amid a possibility that the North could have test-fired a hypersonic missile.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missile was launched from an area in or around Pyongyang at around 5:30 a.m. local time, and the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis.

A military source told Yonhap news agency that the North appears to have test-fired a hypersonic missile, but the test is believed to have ended in failure after the missile flew some 250 kilometres.

A JCS official later told reporters on condition of anonymity that the military is considering the possibility of a hypersonic missile launch, noting that the missile exploded in mid-air over waters off the North’s east coast.

Smoke appeared to emanate from the missile more than previous launches, the official said, raising the possibility of combustion issues. The official added the missile could possibly be powered by solid propellants.

Solid-fuel missiles are considered to be harder to detect ahead of a launch compared with liquid-fuel ones as they require less preparation procedures, such as the injection of fuel.

The launch came after the North slammed the arrival in South Korea of the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and warned of taking “overwhelming and new” deterrence measures against what it called a “provocative” act.

The aircraft carrier arrived in Busan, 320 kilometres southeast of Seoul, on Saturday ahead of a trilateral exercise with South Korea and Japan. (IANS)

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