North Korea planning new missile launch

North Korea appears to be preparing a test-launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday, after what the US described as the “fiery, catastrophic” failure of the first attempt.

On April 15, the North failed to launch what was likely a Musudan missile, with a range of more than 3,000 km (1,800 miles), meaning it could, if launched successfully, hit Japan and also theoretically put the US territory of Guam within range.

The Musudan missile, which can be fired from a mobile launcher, is not known to have been successfully flight-tested.

North Korea tested its fourth nuclear bomb on January 6 and launched a long-range rocket on February 7, both in defiance of UN resolutions. The North on Saturday conducted a test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

“There are indications that the North may fire a Musudan missile that it launched and failed on Kim Il-Sung’s birthday on April 15,” Yonhap quoted an unnamed government official as saying. Kim Il-Sung is the North’s founder.

North and South Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, rather than a treaty.