(LEAD) N. Korea says space rocket launch failed due to midair explosion during first-stage rocket flight

All News 01:35 May 28, 2024

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout; RECASTS headline, lead)

SEOUL, May 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday that its latest attempt to launch a new rocket carrying a reconnaissance satellite ended in failure due to a midair explosion during the flight of its first-stage rocket this week.

The deputy chief of the North's National Aerospace Technology Administration said that the rocket carrying the satellite, the Malligyong-1, exploded during the flight phase after it blasted off from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station on the country's northwest coast on Monday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The launch came just hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a trilateral summit in Seoul and reaffirmed their commitment to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

It defied international warnings and criticism that any launch using ballistic missile technology, including that of a space launch vehicle, runs afoul of U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

A preliminary assessment by onsite experts from the North's launch preparation team suggested that the "accident" appears attributable to the operational credibility of a "liquid oxygen plus petroleum" engine, the deputy chief of the aerospace administration was quoted by the KCNA as saying.

"(They) will also look into problems that could be other causes (of the failure)," the KCNA said in the report.

Shortly after the launch, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the North's rocket ended up as "multiple pieces of debris" in an indication that the satellite launch plan went wrong.

JCS detected the rocket being launched southward over the Yellow Sea from the Tongchang-ri area in the country's northwest at about 10:44 p.m. on Monday.

Pyongyang had earlier notified Japan of a plan to launch a satellite sometime before June 4 and designated three areas, where rocket debris was to have fallen, as a precaution for safety. The liftoff came on the first day of the eight-day launch window.

The recalcitrant regime has planned to launch three satellites into orbit this year. In November, it successfully put its first military spy satellite into orbit.

The North's space rocket launches have drawn condemnation from Seoul, Washington and others, as they violate UNSC resolutions that ban the country from launches using ballistic missile technology.

On Monday. the South's military warned it would take "powerful" measures in response to the North's launch plan, and staged air drills, involving advanced fighter jets, near the inter-Korean border in a show of force.

The rocket launch came despite speculation that deepening military cooperation between the North and Russia might have helped Pyongyang advance its space rocket launch capabilities and other military programs.

Observers said the North appears intent to secure intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets as it is far behind the allies in ISR capabilities despite its focus on developing an array of formidable weapons systems, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles and tactical nuclear arms.