North Korea Tries To Fire Missile, Fails “Almost Immediately”: Pentagon Confirms

• PENTAGON CONFIRMS APPARENT FAILED NORTH KOREA MISSILE TEST: AFP
• S.KOREA CONVENES NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING AT 9:30 A.M.

Well, don’t say Kim Jong-Un didn’t try.

No sooner had the “Day of The Sun” festivities concluded than Pyongyang apparently tried to fire a missile, but like many of the war trial balloons Kim’s regime frequently (and literally) tries to float, this one failed.

“North Korea attempted a missile launch Sunday local time (5:21pm ET), but it blew up almost immediately,” United States military officials confirmed to NBC News.

“U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our allies in the Republic of Korea and in Japan to maintain security,” the military said in a statement Saturday evening.

Here’s the Bloomberg summary:

• North Korea likely attempted to fire an unidentified missile Sunday morning from Sinpo, northeast of Pyongyang, but it failed, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in text message
• Further analysis underway
• Note: Test comes a day after Pyongyang celebrated its biggest national holiday of late founder Kim Il Sung’s 105th birthday and also on the day U.S. Vice President Mike Pence arrives in S. Korea as part of his 10-day Asia trip

As Sky notes, “the North launched a ballistic missile from the same region earlier this month ahead of a summit meeting between the leaders of the United States and China.”

Attempted #DPRK missile launch was at 06:20 KST. https://t.co/fmJVnfWROD

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 15, 2017

From Yonhap:

North Korea’s attempted missile launch on Sunday ended in failure, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The communist state attempted to launch an unidentifed missile from the port city of Sinpo on its east coast in the morning, and the launch is presumed to have failed, the JCS said.

The missile launch attempt came amid rising tensions with the United States that is sending an aircraft-carrier strike group to waters off the Korean Peninsula to deter potential North Korean provocations such as a nuclear test.

Satellite imagery of Sinpo, #NorthKorea #missile launch site. pic.twitter.com/uFRdgWY0Ri

— redandblackattack (@redanblacattack) April 15, 2017

As usual, North Korea had another one of their "successful" rocket launches. pic.twitter.com/WhRYOhUHSV

— Paul Crisp (@pcrispy) April 15, 2017

Great job #NorthKorea pic.twitter.com/UQR1WPfQtQ

— Dean Murphy (@DeanModified) April 15, 2017

This is developing…