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This still from a KCNA broadcast on Oct. 10, 2020, shows the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland that was revealed at a military parade marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party of Korea. (Screen capture from Rodong Sinmun/Yonhap News)

North Korea test-launched what is believed to have been a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, but the projectile exploded in midair shortly after its launch.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced Wednesday that North Korea “launched a projectile from the area of Sunan near Pyongyang at 0930 on March 16, but it is believed to have failed shortly after launch.”

The projectile launch was North Korea’s 10th this year.

A South Korean military official said, “It appears to have failed in the early launch stage without achieving much of an altitude.”

Regarding the specifics of the projectile, the official said the matter would “require additional analysis.” It was reported that the projectile may have exploded at an altitude of less than 20 kilometers while ascending shortly after its launch.

Commenting on whether the projectile was a ballistic or cruise missile, the military official said it would be “difficult to determine based solely on the details detected so far.”

The projectile launch took place at Sunan airfield in Pyongyang, where North Korea recently conducted two performance tests of the new Hwasong-17 ICBM using a transporter erector launcher (TEL). South Korean military authorities are reportedly analyzing whether North Korea also launched a Hwasong-17 missile with its latest test.

Voice of America reported Tuesday that a large concrete structure had been detected at the Sunan airfield, citing civilian satellite photographs. Concrete structures are used in the firing of intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) and higher-range missiles from TELs to prevent the launcher from breaking and the missile’s trajectory from deviating.

On Sunday, a South Korean government official predicted that an additional missile launch by North Korea was “imminent.”

“We’re holding close discussions with the US on a response strategy,” the official said at the time.

If North Korea does launch another ICBM, South Korean and US authorities reportedly intend to respond militarily by ordering strategic bombers to the Korean Peninsula from a US Air Force base on Guam, while the South Korean armed forces conduct missile launch exercises.

On Tuesday, the US Indo-Pacific Command released photographs showing an F-35C fighter aircraft taking off from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Philippine Sea.

The command announced that the fighter had conducted a long-range flight as far as the West Sea. The same day, US Forces Korea announced that it was conducting exercises with a Patriot battery for intercepting North Korean missiles.

South Korean and US military authorities previously concluded that the two ballistic missiles test-launched by North Korean at the Sunan airfield on Feb. 27 and March 5 were medium-range ballistic missiles, with shorter ranges than an ICBM. But upon closer analysis, they concluded that North Korea had conducted performance testing with a Hwasong-17 fuselage.

North Korea has referred to its two missile launches as “important tests for reconnaissance satellite development.”

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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