A North Korean submarine launched a ballistic missile Saturday off the country’s eastern coast, inciting condemnation from the international community over what officials said was an explicit violation of United Nations-imposed sanctions.
The missile was fired around 11:30 a.m. local time but failed soon after launch, South Korea’s military said.
“After its ejection from underwater, the projectile appeared to have failed in its early stage of flight,” said a South Korean defense ministry spokesman, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The missile’s engine ignited successfully at first, only for the projectile to explode moments later at a height of around 6 miles between the Korean peninsula and Japan, reported South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
“The government strongly condemns North Korea for carrying out the provocation of test-firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile,” added Cho June-hyuck, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Seoul.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the missile-launch a “clear challenge to UN Security Council resolutions” on Saturday that must be internationally condemned.
The UN Security Council has adopted five resolutions during the last decade intended to sanction North Korea for its nuclear weapon program, including items that specifically prohibit Pyongyang from conducting missile tests.
The U.S. Strategic Command confirmed it had detected what it believed to be a KN-11 submarine-launched ballistic missile, Reuters reported.
Three months after conducting a similarly unsuccessful missile launch, U.S. Army Gen. Curtis M. Scaparrotti, NATO’s top military commander, told reporters that Saturday’s firing signals a serious threat to the interests of the U.S. and its regional allies.
“With every launch, they’re getting better and they’re working out their problems,” he told the Associated Press.
“We strongly condemn this and North Korea’s other recent missile tests, which violate U.N. Security Council resolutions explicitly prohibiting North Korea’s launches using ballistic missile technology,” added Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross.
Saturday’s launch occurred hardly one day after the U.S. and South Korea said they would deploy an advanced anti-missile system in the region, and three days after the United States announced sanctions directly targeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a history of human rights abuses under his regime. His government responded in the interim by accusing Washington of committing a “hideous crime” and effectively issuing a “declaration of war” against Pyongyang.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.