North Korea's ballistic missile launch from a submarine ended in failure, South Korea's military said, a provocative move that drew condemnation from South Korea and other regional powers.
The North's latest show of force came a day after South Korea and the United States announced they will deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system in South Korea to counter threats posed by North Korea's missiles.
The ballistic missile appears to have exploded at an altitude of some 10 kilometers after being fired from a submerged 2,000-ton Sinpo-class submarine, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
"The SLBM was ejected from the submarine normally, but (we) estimate the initial flight was unsuccessful," the JCS said in a brief press release.
Photo released by North Korea shows the country's submarine-launched ballistic missile fired on April 23. (Yonhap)
South Korea denounced the North's latest missile launch, calling it a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. North Korea is banned from any use of ballistic missile technology under U.N. resolutions.
"The government strongly condemns North Korea for carrying out the provocation of test-firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck said.
He also said South Korea will keep up sanctions and pressure on the North and strengthen its deterrent against North Korea based on combined South Korea-U.S. defense capabilities.
On Friday, Seoul and Washington formally announced their decision to place a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in South Korea in response to North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
South Korea said close consultations are underway with the United States and other regional powers on how the U.N. Security Council should deal with North Korea's latest missile launch
The Security Council was swift to condemn North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missile test in April with a press statement.
Still it remains unclear how China and Russia will react to a possible U.N. move against North Korea over its latest missile launch, given their negative reactions to the deployment of a THAAD battery in South Korea.
A diplomatic source said the North's missile launch could become a testbed for Chinese and Russian cooperation against North Korea. China and Russia are two of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi restated Beijing's longstanding opposition to the deployment of a THAAD battery as he called on South Korea to think whether the anti-missile system will be conducive to stability on the Korean Peninsula and the resolution of North Korea's nuclear program.
Wang made the comments in an interview with Sri Lanka media during his trip to Colombo, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
In Washington, Cmdr. Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman, said, "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."
"This provocation only serves to increase the international community's resolve to counter the DPRK's prohibited activities, including through implementing existing U.N. Security Council sanctions," the official said.
"We call on North Korea to refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments," he said.
The U.S. Strategic Command said in a statement that it "detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean submarine missile launch" and that the launch of a presumed KN-11 submarine-launched ballistic missile occurred off the coast of Sinpo.
"The missile was tracked over the Sea of Japan, where initial indications are it fell," it said, adding that the North American Aerospace Defense Command determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.
In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that North Korea's latest act is "a clear challenge to U.N.
Security Council resolutions. We must firmly condemn it," Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.
South Korea's military said that North Korea has achieved progress in the initial undersea ejection stage of its SLBM technology.
Still, the apparent midair missile explosion suggests that North Korea has yet to master the technology to build an SLBM system. In April, another North Korean submarine-launched ballistic missile broke into several pieces in midair after flying some 30 kilometers.
The North is probably in the flight test stage of its SLBM before moving onto the final test phase that will require the missile to hit targets, South Korea's military said.
South Korea believes that North Korea may be ready to deploy its SLBMs for service in about three years.
In a rare sign of unity, rival South Korean political parties also condemned North Korea for the missile launch.
Ruling Saenuri Party spokesman Ji Sang-wuk said the North's missile launch would only escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and North Korea will gain nothing from its provocation.
"North Korea should clearly recognize that it can never get what it wants through military threats like the missile launch," said Lee Jae-kyoung, spokesman for the main opposition Minjoo Party. (Yonhap)