North Korea Missile Hits Own City

A North Korea missile reportedly hit one of its own cities and destroyed several buildings after a failed launch during a test, The Diplomat reported citing a U.S. government source.

News of the failure sharply escalates concerns that such an errant missile could lead to war if it lands in a country like Japan or South Korea.

In a story posted Wednesday, The Diplomat had the source saying the Hwasong-12/KN17 intermediate-range ballistic missile landed in Tokchon, North Korea, heavily damaging a complex of industrial or agricultural buildings.

The failed test on April 28 didn’t get much attention in the U.S. media because little was known about the test other than it failed, the website Gizmodo reported.

The missile took off from the Pukchang Airfield in South Pyongan Province, known as the Korean People's Army's Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 447 in Ryongak-dong, Sunchon City, The Diplomat said.

The U.S. government source told The Diplomat that the missile's first stage engines failed after about a minute in the air before crashing back down to earth. The Diplomat said it was able to independently verify the incident through commercially available satellite imagery from April and May 2017.

The Diplomat said the April 28 test was the third attempted flight-test of the North Korean missile and that the Hwasong-12 became the fundamental building block for the Hwasong-14/KN20 intercontinental-range ballistic missile.

North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons tests have long been a cause of concern internationally. In December, the United Nations Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on the reclusive communist country for its most recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, Reuters reported.

The sanctions came after North Korea successfully tested a new ICBM on Nov. 29 that could put the U.S. mainland within range of the country's nuclear weapons.
"(The sanctions) send the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation," Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said then, according to Reuters.

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