SEOUL, May 28 (AJU PRESS) - North Korea's attempt to launch a space rocket carrying a military spy satellite ended in failure, the renegade country said Tuesday.
The attempt came just several hours after Pyongyang informed of its plan to launch a satellite into orbit by June 4.
"The launch of the new satellite carrier rocket failed when it exploded in mid-air during the flight of the first stage," the North's state-run Korean News Agency reported.
Earlier, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, "We detected a projectile..... heading southwest from the Tongch'ang-ri area in North Pyongan Province at about 10:44 p.m. (1344 GMT) on Monday." The JCS explained that the projectile exploded into multiple pieces of debris above North Korean waters just a few minutes after launch.
The JCS added South Korea, the U.S., and Japan had preemptively deployed Aegis destroyers to areas within the possible trajectory of the rocket, enabling them to figure out the rocket's failure.
Intelligence agencies from South Korea and the U.S. are closely cooperating to monitor the situation and prepare for any further provocations.
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