North Korea Fired A Missile And It Blew Up Within Seconds Of Launch

Another day, another provocation by North Korea, but this one literally blew up in their face. According to South Korean and U.S. officials, North Korea fired a missile on Wednesday, only to have it blow up seconds after launch.

South Korea’s defense ministry said in a statement that Pyongyang fired one missile from an air base in the eastern port of Wonsan but it is believed that the launch failed.

“We are in the process of analyzing what type of missile it was,” the statement said.

U.S. military Pacific Command spokesman Commander Dave Benham echoed Seoul’s assessment of the situation with his statement.

“US Pacific Command detected what we assess was a failed North Korean missile launch attempt … in the vicinity of Kalma,” Benham said. “A missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch.”

Two U.S. officials told Fox News that the missile test ended in failure when it exploded five seconds after launch. You probably don’t want missiles blowing up directly after launching, especially if you plan on putting a nuclear warhead on them.

This footage is rumored to be video of the failed launch, but it has not been confirmed.

[protected-iframe id=”2657d2da6d156547bccf7d7ea295c8f6-97886205-93291949″ info=”//giphy.com/embed/Ij5eec1luJQFG” width=”480″ frameborder=”0″ class=”giphy-embed” allowfullscreen=””]

via GIPHY

This video is not confirmed as genuine as well.

[protected-iframe id=”7da77680318873d40a15761575111373-97886205-93291949″ info=”//giphy.com/embed/11jucxrYlHScko” width=”480″ frameborder=”0″ class=”giphy-embed” allowfullscreen=””]

via GIPHY

South Korea and the U.S. have not released any information as to what kind of missile was launched. This has sparked speculation that the missile could be a newly developed one that had not been deployed until Wednesday.

This comes as Kim Jong Un desperately seeks attention as a way to deal with the Foal Eagle joint military between the United States and South Korea that began on March 1 and go until April 30. Also on Wednesday, a U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber and South Korean fighter jets conducted joint training exercises that were to show “strong deterrence against North Korean nuclear and missile threats,” South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.

Last week, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatened the world via their state-run news agency KCNA after they tested a new “high-thrust” missile engine.

“The world will soon witness what eventful significance the … recent ground jet test of Korean-style high-thrust engine will carry. The nuclear force of [North Korea] is the treasured sword of justice and the most reliable war deterrence.”

They also said that North Korea would start a nuclear war if a “single bullet is fired” by South Korea or the United States.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that diplomacy has “failed” with Kim Jong Un’s regime and “all options are on the table,” including a preemptive attack.

On Monday, it was reported by Reuters that the Trump administration is “considering sweeping sanctions aimed at cutting North Korea off from the global financial system as part of a broad review of measures to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threat.”

This was the second missile launch this month. On March 6, Pyongyang fired four intermediate-range ballistic missiles and three of them landed less than 200 nautical miles off the Japanese coast. However, a fifth missile failed to launch as planned.

Everything You Need To Know About North Korea’s Missile Launch

North Korea has had a number of failed missile launches in the past year. They have had many issues with the Musudan missile, which is a intermediate-range ballistic missile with a range of 1,500 to 2,500 miles, enough to reach Japan or Guam.

From CNN:

Two missiles, thought to be Musudans, failed to launch successfully within one week in October. The previous June, of two missiles launched, one didn’t make it further than 93 miles. The other flew 250 miles before falling into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, which North Korea claimed was a success. Still, both of those were more successful than North Korea’s launches earlier in 2016. In May, one Musudan flew for about two seconds before exploding, while an April launch was described by the Pentagon as a “fiery, catastrophic failure,” according to CSIS.

[CNN/FoxNews/NBCNews]