North Korea suspected ballistic missile explodes after launch

SpaceWar.com reports: “North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile that exploded mid-air shortly after launch, Seoul said Wednesday, with analysts warning it was likely a failed test of Pyongyang’s so-called ‘monster missile’.

The launch — North Korea’s tenth suspected weapons test this year — comes after the United States said the nuclear-armed country was preparing to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) ‘at full range’ for the first time since 2017.

Despite biting international sanctions over its weapons programmes, Pyongyang conducted seven missile tests in January and twice launched components of what it claimed was a ‘reconnaissance satellite’.

South Korea and the US said last week those tests were actually of a new ICBM system that has never been launched before — likely the Hwasong-17, dubbed a ‘monster missile’ by analysts after it was first unveiled at a parade in October 2020.

The suspected ballistic missile ‘seems to have exploded in midair shortly after launch,’ Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP…”

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