North Korea fails in new missile test

Seoul : A new North Korean missile test failed on Wednesday, the South and US said, two weeks after Pyongyang launched four rockets in what it called a drill for an attack on American bases in Japan.

 The nuclear-armed North is under several sets of United Nations sanctions over its atomic and ballistic missile programmes.

It is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with an atomic warhead, and staged two nuclear tests and multiple missile launches last year.

The North fired one missile from an air base in the eastern port of Wonsan Wednesday morning, but the launch "is believed to have failed", Seoul's defence ministry said in a statement, adding it was analysing what type of missile was involved.

The US military said the missile exploded shortly after launch. 

"US Pacific Command detected what we assess was a failed North Korean missile launch attempt... in the vicinity of Kalma. A missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch," said spokesman David Benham.

Earlier this month Pyongyang launched a flight of four ballistic missiles, with three landing provocatively close to Japan in what the North described as practice for attacks on US military bases in Japan.  

On Sunday, its leader Kim Jong-Un personally oversaw and hailed a "successful" test of what Pyongyang said was a new rocket engine -- which can be easily repurposed for use in missiles. 

Seoul said that experiment showed "meaningful progress" in the North's missile capabilities.

The developments come as Seoul and Washington hold large-scale annual joint military exercises that always infuriate Pyongyang, which sees them as a rehearsal for invasion.

Analysts' opinions are varied on how advanced the North's missile technologies are but many agree that Pyongyang has made significant progress in recent years.