2023-05-31 01:02:55
North Korea announced on Wednesday morning that it had launched a rocket carrying a military observation satellite, but that it had “fallen into the sea”, according to the state agency KCNA. Pyongyang mentioned a technical incident. “The new Cheollima-1 satellite carrier rocket crashed into the West Sea,” the Korean name for the Yellow Sea, KCNA said.
The projectile “lost momentum due to an abnormal start of the two-stage motor”, the news agency added. The administration said “it will thoroughly investigate the serious flaws revealed during the satellite’s launch, take urgent scientific and technological measures to overcome them, and carry out the second launch as soon as possible in conducting various partial tests,” KCNA continued.
The United States “strongly condemns” the firing of this rocket, which “increases tensions”, according to a statement from the White House. This launch, which uses “ballistic missile technology”, “risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond”, estimated Adam Hodge, spokesman for the National Security Council,
The South Korean army had earlier reported the shooting of a “space launch vehicle”, indicating that it was investigating whether it had exploded in flight or crashed, the device having quickly disappeared from radar, reported the Yonhap agency. “The (North Korean) projectile disappeared from radar before reaching its expected landing point,” the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Canceled alerts
The shooting initially caused confusion in South Korea and Japan. South Korean authorities finally canceling an alert issued earlier by the city of Seoul, which sounded sirens and sent a “critical emergency” message to all mobile phones asking residents to prepare to evacuate by doing put “children and the elderly first”. “We inform you that the alert issued by the Seoul Metropolitan authorities at 6:41 a.m. [23h41 en Suisse] was incorrectly launched,” the South Korean Interior Ministry said.
“Missile launch. Missile launch. North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please take shelter inside buildings or underground,” said an alert tweeted by the Japanese Prime Minister’s office for residents of the Okinawa archipelago, and broadcast by the national channel NHK. . However, the Japanese government canceled this alert 30 minutes later, considering that all danger had been averted. “North Korea launched what appears to be a ballistic missile (…) No damage has been reported at this time. We are analyzing other information,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters upon arriving at his office in Tokyo.
North Korea announced on Tuesday that it would launch a “military reconnaissance satellite” in order to “deal with the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals”, Japan believing for its part that it would act as a disguised ballistic missile launch. The Japanese Ministry of Defense had ordered the downing of any missile whose fall on its land or sea territory was confirmed, and had deployed SM-3 and Patriot PAC-3 type interceptor missiles for this purpose.
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