South Korea’s military has apologized after a failed missile launch during a joint drill with the United States sparked alarm among residents in the coastal city of Gangneung at 01:00 on Wednesday (16:00 GMT Tuesday).
South Korea residents reported hearing an explosion and seeing a fire overnight but the military, which has said there were no casualties, didn’t acknowledge the incident until seven hours later.
The missile launch was in response to North Korea firing a missile over Japan early on Tuesday, the first time Pyongyang flew a missile over Japan since 2017.
The North Korean show of force prompted a show of force from the US, Japan and South Korea who conducted military drills. Seoul and Washington also fired a volley of missiles into the East Sea also known as the Sea of Japan – between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
The South Korean military later confirmed that one of their missiles failed soon after it was launched and crashed.
The military also said that the Hyunmoo-2 missile carried a warhead but that it did not explode, and apologised for causing worry.
North Korea’s missile launch on Tuesday was the fifth carried out by Pyongyang in a week. Many of its missile tests are conducted on a flight path that reaches a high altitude, avoiding flights over its neighbors.
In September, North Korea passed a law declaring itself to be a nuclear weapons state, with leader Kim Jong-un ruling out the possibility of talks on denuclearization
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