N Korea's second attempt to launch spy satellite fails

North Korea's second attempt to launch a spy satellite, Malligyong-1 into orbit failed on Thursday due to an error in the emergency blasting system in the third stage of the rocket, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

North Korea's KCNA reported that the National Aerospace Development Administration launched the second reconnaissance satellite — Malligyong-1 — aboard the new-type carrier rocket Chollima-1 at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on Thursday after the first one failed in May.

"The flights of the first and second stages of the rocket were normal, but the launch failed due to an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight," the KCNA report read.

"The NADA said that it would make clear in a short span of time the reason why the emergency blasting system was operated abnormally," it further added.

Explaining that the cause of the relevant accident is not a big problem in the aspect of the reliability of cascade engines and the system, the NADA expressed the stand that it would conduct the third reconnaissance satellite launch in October after thoroughly probing the reason and taking measures.

Earlier, in May, North Korea conducted its first spy satellite but failed to reach the desired place. After the failure, KCNA said that some problems came like "serious defects" appeared, and the rocket carrying the spy satellite experienced an abnormal firing of its second-stage engine and lost propulsion, adding the failure was attributed to the "low reliability and stability of the new-type engine system."

After the launch of the recent satellite, the top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Thursday "strongly condemned" North Korea's latest space rocket launch that apparently ended in failure earlier in the day, Seoul's foreign ministry said, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Seoul's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Gunn, and his US and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Hiroyuki Namazu, respectively, delivered the joint message in a trilateral conference call after Pyongyang announced that its second attempt to launch a spy satellite earlier in the day failed.

According to the ministry, the chief negotiators emphasized that the North's latest launch "constitutes a grave violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit any launches by North Korea using ballistic missile technology," as per Yonhap News Agency.