SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Wednesday it had failed to launch its first spy satellite into space, a blow to the nuclear-weapon state’s efforts to boost its capabilities military in a context of growing tensions with the United States and its neighbours.
Pyongyang said it would try another launch soon after learning what went wrong to send the rocket plunging into the sea after liftoff. It was an unusually candid acknowledgment of the failure of Kim Jong Un’s regime, but the attempted launch has sparked alarm among its neighbors, with rare emergency alerts and evacuation warnings shaking residents in Korea South and Japan.
According to the North Korean state news agency KCNA.
It then crashed into the sea off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula “after losing thrust due to the abnormal start of the second stage engine”, KCNA said.
North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration said it would investigate what happened and address any shortcomings before carrying out another launch as soon as possible, KCNA said.
South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said they were recovering the potential wreckage of the vehicle from waters about 200 km west of South Korea’s Eocheong Island. Photos shared by the South Korean Ministry of National Defense showed some of the debris that had been recovered.
In a trilateral phone call, the United States, Japan and South Korea strongly condemned the launch, which was based on ballistic missile technology and violated United Nations Security Council resolutions. The three countries are closely monitoring the situation “with great vigilance”, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement summarizing the appeal.
South Korea and Japan said they were monitoring possible additional launches.
In response to the launch, public loudspeakers and text messages urged residents of South Korea’s capital, Seoul, to prepare to evacuate, but the country’s Interior and Security Ministry later said that it was a mistake.
Jamie Park, 21, said his family woke up to emergency alerts on their phones as well as announcements on public loudspeakers.
“My mom told us all to get dressed and gather all our important things like passports and laptops so we could evacuate,” she told NBC News.
The family spent about 40 minutes watching the news on television until they were sure the danger was over.
“I know not everyone took it seriously because it’s not the rarest thing, but suddenly waking up to it definitely shook things up,” Park said.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon apologized for the confusion, but said the alert was sent out of caution, noting that unlike previous occasions, North Korea has rushed south instead. than to the east.
Japan also issued an emergency warning in southern Okinawa prefecture, which it later lifted.
North Korea said Tuesday it planned to launch what it said was a military spy satellite between Wednesday and June 11, in part to monitor what KCNA called “dangerous military acts by the United States.” States and their vassal forces”.
Last week, the U.S. and South Korean militaries held large-scale live-fire drills near the border with North Korea, the first of five rounds by mid-June. North Korea sees these exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion, which the United States and South Korea deny.
UN sanctions prohibit North Korea from testing ballistic and long-range missiles.
The country has launched such missiles several times anyway, including last month when it said it tested a solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time. It has also carried out six nuclear tests and is preparing for a seventh.
North Korea and South Korea technically remain in a state of conflict, after the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. South Korea, which successfully launched its first commercial-grade satellite last week, is expected to launch its own spy satellite later this year.
North Korea’s failed launch “does not weaken the case for growing trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States,” said Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor at international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
But any attempt to toughen UN sanctions, he said, is likely to continue to be blocked by China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, who view the sanctions as ineffective.
In a statement, the US National Security Council called on North Korea to resume denuclearization negotiations, stalled since early 2019.
“The door has not closed on diplomacy but Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and choose engagement instead,” NSC spokesman Adam Hodge said.
Hodge said the United States would take “all necessary steps” to protect the American homeland, as well as its allies South Korea and Japan.
Stella Kim reported from Seoul, Arata Yamamoto reported from Tokyo, and Jennifer Jett and Jimin Lee reported from Hong Kong.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com