North Korea military spy satellite launch fails, crashes into sea; Pyongyang vows second attempt soon

North Korea state media said on Wednesday that a military spy satellite waslaunched but it failed and crashed into the sea.

"The launched new satellite transport rocket 'Cheollima-1' crashed into the West Sea of Korea as it lost momentum due to abnormal start-up of the two-stage engine after one step separation while flying normally," the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Pyongyang’sfailure to put the country’s first spy satellite into orbit isbeing viewed as an embarrassment for its leader Kim Jong Un who has been pushing for a boost of North Korea’s military capability amid the security tensions with the United States and South Korea.

It was the nuclear-armed state's sixth satellite launch attempt, and the first since 2016 and would have been North Korea’s first spy satellite in orbit.

North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) will investigate the "serious defects" and take action to overcome them before conducting a second launch as soon as possible, KCNA said.

The launch of the satellite, meanwhile, caused panic and a flurry of activity in South Korean capital Seoul as air raid sirens blared and city authorities asked citizens to be prepared for evacuation before saying that the evacuation order was 'incorrectly issued'.

The text alert that was initially sent read,"Citizens, please prepare to evacuate and allow children and the elderly to evacuate first."

Missile alert warning system activated in Japan

Japan activated its missile alert warning system for the southern region of Okinawa soon after the North Korean launch.

"Missile launch. Missile launch. North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please take shelters inside buildings or underground," said the alert tweeted by the prime minister’s office and carried on national broadcaster NHK.

The official English language Twitter handle of Japan PMO said in its tweets that a 'suspected ballistic missile' has been fired by North Korea and that'it will possibly land in the area around Okinawa'.

But around 30 minutes later, the government tweeted that the alert was being cancelled.

"It is expected that the missile reported earlier will not come to Japan. The call for evacuation is lifted," it said.

News agency Yonhap quoted South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff assaying that the projectile flew over the Yellow Sea and didn't affect the Seoul metropolitan area.

Officials from the United States, Japan, South Korea held a phone call and“strongly condemned" the launch, Japan’s foreign ministry said.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military was conducting operation to recover parts of the space launch vehicle.The military shared pictures of debris pulled from the water.

North Korea had earlier given indications that it intends to launch a spy satellite. On Tuesday, North Korea said that the satellite would be "indispensable to tracking, monitoring... and coping with in advance in real time the dangerous military acts of the US and its vassal forces".

The North had criticised US-South Korea joint military exercises, including the one going on right now. According to North Korean state media, one of country's top military officials said that Pyongyang felt "the need to expand reconnaissance and information means and improve various defensive and offensive weapons."

However, sincelong-range rockets and space launchers share the same technology, analysts say developing the ability to put a satellite in orbit would provide Pyongyang with cover for testing banned intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

In 2012 and 2016, Pyongyang tested ballistic missiles that it called satellite launches. Both flew over Japan's southern Okinawa region.

(With inputs from agencies)

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