Missile launch fails as North Korea 'accelerates' nuclear plan

North Korea has seemingly failed in missile launch as it seeks to 'accelerate' its nuclear and missile programmes

North Korea launched a flight of four ballistic missiles earlier this month (File photo)
North Korea launched a flight of four ballistic missiles earlier this month (File photo)

A North Korean missile appeared to have exploded on Wednesday just after it was launched, the US and South Korean militaries said after detecting the latest in a series of weapons tests by the nuclear-armed state that have alarmed the region.

The launch attempt was made from near the city of Wonsan, on North Korea's east coast, the same place from where it launched several intermediate-range missiles last year, all but one of which failed.

"US Pacific Command detected what we assess was a failed North Korean missile launch attempt ... in the vicinity of Kalma," Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman for US Pacific Command, said in a statement, referring to an air field in Wonsan.

"A missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch," Benham said, adding that work was being carried out on a more detailed assessment.

The reported failed launch came during large-scale annual military drills involving US and South Korean forces that the North has called a rehearsal for an invasion.

North Korea is banned from any missile or nuclear tests by the United Nations. However, it has conducted such tests with increasing frequency and experts say this could lead to advances in its missile technology.

Earlier this month, the North fired four missiles that flew about 1,000km landing in Japanese waters.

The Trump administration is considering sweeping sanctions as part of a broad review of measures to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat, a senior US official in Washington told Reuters on Monday.

In response, a senior North Korean diplomat has said that that the communist country has nothing to fear from any US move to broaden sanctions aimed at cutting it off from the global financial system and will pursue “acceleration” of its nuclear and missile programmes

This includes developing a “pre-emptive first strike capability” and an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), said Choe Myong-nam, deputy ambassador at the DPRK (North Korean) mission to the United Nations in Geneva.