Global Courant 2023-05-31 14:55:01
SEOUL — North Korea on Wednesday acknowledged its failure to launch a military spy satellite, an effort US officials called a “brutal violation” of UN resolutions.
After admitting the failure in an unusually short time, North Korea’s state news agency reported that a second launch attempt will be made as soon as possible.
An image of a handout shows what is believed to be part of a space launch vehicle that North Korea says crashed into the sea off the western coast of South Korea’s divided peninsula on May 31, 2023.
Department of Defense/via Reuters
According to state media, the satellite crashed into the Western Sea when it lost thrust due to a misfire in the takeoff of the two-stage mover after the first stage separated during normal flight.
The satellite essentially exploded mid-air, an embarrassment to Kim Jong-un’s government, a senior US official told ABC News. North Korea said in 2018 that it had launched a satellite into space, but international analysts later said that was not true.
A South Korean army soldier faces the North Korea side from the Unification Observation Post in South Korea’s Paju, near the border with North Korea, Wednesday, May 31, 2023.
Ahn Youngjoon/AP
Citizens in Seoul received a telephone message early Wednesday morning, shortly after the satellite’s launch, with a “presidential warning” from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, noting that “all citizens should be ready to evacuate.”
Twenty-two minutes later, the Ministry of Interior and Security, charged with sending disaster warnings across the country, sent another warning, noting that the first message to Seoul was “a false warning.”
Another 22 minutes later, the Seoul Metropolitan Government clarified that their earlier message was due to a “North Korean missile launch” and “the alarm has been lifted.”
Some citizens whose phone operating systems were set to English received messages titled “wartime alert,” which caused jitters in the foreign community.
The confusing warning messages from the city and government led to criticism over whether authorities were overreacting or actively governing.
A public TV screen broadcasts news of North Korea’s launch of its first spy satellite, on a Tokyo street on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. North Korea’s attempt to send the country’s first spy satellite into space, failed on Wednesday.
Eugene Hoshiko/AP
“Unlike North Korea’s usual launch into the Baltic Sea, the Seoul government, which is responsible for the safety of 10 million citizens in the situation of launching to the south this time, has decided that immediate action is necessary and a issued a warning,” Oh Sehoon, the mayor of Seoul said.
“South Korean people have not been trained nor have they done any exercises to prepare for such attacks. The problem is that such cases will most likely become more common,” Park Jae Wan, a professor of security strategy at Seoul-based Kookmin University in Seoul, told ABC News.
President Joe Biden and his national security team are reviewing the launch in close consultation with allies and partners, National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said.
The launch used ballistic missile technology, “which is a brutal violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, is raising tensions and threatening to destabilize the security situation in the region and beyond,” Hodge said in a statement.
“We urge all countries to condemn this launch and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations,” Hodge said. “The door is not closed to diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately stop its provocative actions and choose engagement instead.”
An image of a handout shows part of what is believed to be a space launch vehicle that North Korea says crashed into the sea off the western coast of South Korea’s divided peninsula on May 31, 2023.
Ministry of Defense via Reuters
The South Korean military has recovered parts of the wreckage of the North Korean satellite and plans to analyze the technology used in the missile that North Korea claims is a “satellite.”
The North Korean National Space Development Administration is analyzing the cause of the accident.
Wednesday’s launch also prompted brief evacuation warnings in Japan.
ABC News’ Martha Raddatz and Molly Nagle contributed to this story.
