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South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff released this photo of South Korean military officials picking up what is presumed to be a piece connecting the first and second stages of the rocket shot by North Korea on May 31. (courtesy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters)

North Korea attempted to place its Malligyong-1 military reconnaissance satellite into orbit on Wednesday, but the launch vehicle crashed into the waters west of the Korean Peninsula after engine failure. Shortly after the failed launch, the North announced it would carry out a second launch soon.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that an object presumed to be a piece connecting the first and second stages of the rocket had been recovered from the area of the Yellow Sea where the launch vehicle crashed.

“The National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) of [North Korea] launched a military reconnaissance satellite, ‘Malligyong-1,’ mounted on a new-type carrier rocket, ‘Chollima-1,’ at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in Cholsan County of North [Pyongan] Province at 6:27 on May 31,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday.

“The carrier rocket ‘Chollima-1’ fell to the [Yellow Sea] after losing thrust due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine,” the KCNA explained, adding that NADA intended to “take urgent scientific and technological measures [. . .] and conduct the second launch as soon as possible.”

“What North Korea describes as a launch vehicle passed through the sky far to the west of Baengnyeong Island and then flew abnormally until crashing into the sea some 200 kilometers to the west of Eocheong Island [near Gunsan, North Jeolla Province],” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

In an emergency session of the National Security Council chaired by national security advisor Cho Tae-yong, the South Korean government denounced North Korea’s launch of a military surveillance satellite as “both a grave violation of UN Security Council resolutions and a serious provocation that threatens the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the international community.”

The White House also called on North Korea to immediately halt its provocative behavior.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer; Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter; Kim Mi-na, staff reporter

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