North Korea’s ballistic missile programme suffered a significant setback Thursday evening when a long-range missile exploded on its launch pad at the Tongchang-ri facility — the third failure in six months and the first catastrophic launch-pad incident in at least a decade.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the explosion triggered a brief civilian evacuation order for areas north of the launch site before the all-clear was given. No casualties were reported. Japan’s defence ministry said it was monitoring the situation but that the missile did not leave North Korean territory.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said it was aware of the incident and was in close contact with regional allies. The explosion was visible as a fireball from the Chinese border approximately 40 km away. Analysts said the failure was likely caused by a solid-fuel oxidiser issue, consistent with problems documented in last October’s failed Musudan test.
Thursday’s incident follows two successive failures of North Korea’s solid-fuel ICBM programme this year. State media has not yet commented on the explosion.
Sources: KCNA, South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff, Japan Defence Ministry, Reuters, AP, BBC.