Array
Residents of South Korea’s capital, Seoul, were startled Wednesday morning by air raid sirens and mobile phone alerts telling them to prepare for evacuation.
The panic was prompted by North Korea’s failed attempt to launch a satellite, which resulted in tons of fiery debris falling into the sea.
North Korean state media reported the attempt to launch a “Chollima-1” spy satellite ended in catastrophic failure because the engine and fuel system of the rocket were “unstable.”
The rocket booster and its payload crashed off the western coast of the Korean peninsula shortly after its 6:37 a.m. launch.
North Korea had previously announced it would launch a satellite sometime between May 31 and June 11, with a flight path that could drop debris into the Yellow Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
Pyongyang’s KCNA news service reported the rocket had “serious defects” and crashed “after losing thrust due to the abnormal starting of its second-stage engine,” an unusually swift and candid admission of failure for the secretive Communist regime.
“It is impressive when the North Korean regime actually admits failure, but it would be difficult to hide the fact of a satellite launch failure internationally, and the regime will likely offer a different narrative domestically,” professor Leif-Eric Easley of Seoul’s Ewha University told the Associated Press (AP).
“This outcome also suggests that Pyongyang may stage another provocation soon, in part to make up for today’s setback,” Easley cautioned.
“Even if this satellite launch is a failure, General Secretary Kim Jong-un himself has made clear that this satellite is the first of many. This won’t be the end of those efforts,” North Korean studies professor Atsuhito Isozaki of Japan’s Keio University said in a similar vein.
South Korean intelligence officials speculated the launch failed because the North rushed the job after watching its rivals in the South successfully place seven satellites into orbit with a single rocket launch last week.
Residents of Seoul were surprised to hear air raid sirens blaring at 6:32 a.m. local time, five minutes before the officially clocked launch of the North Korean rocket. The city then issued a “presidential alert” advising residents to prepare for possible evacuation.
Twenty minutes of panic ensued as many Seoulites frantically packed their bags and nervously watched the skies.
