Seoul: N. Korea Missile Launch Ends in Mid-Air Explosion

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North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, but the missile exploded in the air, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in South Korea said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that the missile was launched from an area in or around Pyongyang on Wednesday morning and the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis.

A military source told South Korea’s News Agency (Yonhap) 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 kilometers.

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 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Saturday ahead of a trilateral exercise with South Korea and Japan.

Source: Qatar News Agency