South Korea's defense ministry has said that Pyongyang has attempted to launch an unidentified missile. Under UN measures, North Korea is prohibited from any use of ballistic missile technology.

The defense ministry in Seoul said in a statement on Tuesday that the failed missile test took place at around 5:20 a.m. local time (2020 UTC, Monday), near the eastern port city of Wonsan.

"The attempted missile launch ... is believed to have failed," a ministry spokesman said.

"We are analyzing and closely monitoring the situation and maintaining a watertight defense posture," he added.

The ministry declined to speculate on the type of missile. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted military sources, however, saying it was understood to be a medium-range Musudan missile.

International sanctions

The test on Tuesday came amid growing fears that the North is getting ever closer to reaching its goal of creating a nuclear missile, capable of hitting mainland America.

In April, the North failed three times to test-fire a Musudan, which has an estimated range of anywhere between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers (1,550 to 2,500 miles).

The lower range covers the whole of South Korea and Japan, while the upper range would include US military bases on the island of Guam. To date, the missile has never been successfully flight-tested.

An atomic test in January and the launch of a long-range ballistic missile in February also prompted a tightening of international sanctions on Pyongyang.

Dispute over western sea boundary

Tensions are also high on the divided Korean peninsula as Pyongyang pushes Seoul to accept leader Kim Jong-Un's proposal for talks, aimed at easing cross-border tensions.

Pyongyang threatened last week to fire at South Korean warships if they crossed into North Korean waters. The move came a day after the South Korean navy fired warning shots to chase away two North Korean ships that had crossed a disputed western sea boundary.

Minor incidents are quite common on the western sea boundary. The line, which was drawn by the American-led UN command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, is not recognized by the North.

(DW)