South Korea’s military on Wednesday said its northern neighbors launched an alleged hypersonic missile that exploded mid-flight.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea launched the missile around 5:30 a.m., and it traveled off the North’s east coast before blowing up.
The weapon was a suspected solid-fueled hypersonic missile, and the launch generated more smoke than normal launches, likely because of an engine fault, the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters.
Senior diplomats from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan condemned the missile launch as a violation of U.N. resolutions, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
The failed missile tests come as the rival Koreas have been engaging in Cold War-style psychological warfare tactics, including using balloons and loudspeaker broadcasts, irking the other side.
South Korea said Wednesday evening that the North had flown balloons carrying trash across the border for a third day in a row. Previous launches dropped manure, cigarette butts, waste batteries and scraps of cloth in South Korea.
The balloon launches forced South Korea’s Incheon International Airport — about an hour’s drive from the border — to suspend takeoffs and landings for at least three hours early Wednesday, according to South Korean aviation authorities.
North Korea has said the balloons are in response to the South launching its own balloons across the North that carried political leaflets. (Fox News)
