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(ATTN: UPDATES with mayor's comment)
By Park Boram
SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- The Seoul city government on Wednesday erroneously sent out an emergency alert advising citizens to prepare for evacuation after North Korea's launch of what it claimed to be a space launch vehicle.
The mobile phone alert was sent to all citizens at 6:41 a.m., shortly after the Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired what it claimed was a satellite-carrying rocket. But the interior ministry retracted the alert at 7:03 a.m., saying it was sent by mistake.
"We inform that the alert warning issued by the Seoul Metropolitan City at 6:41 a.m. was an erroneous issuance," the interior ministry said in a separate mobile phone alert.
A ministry official said that Seoul is not an area where an alert has been issued.
Seoul city erroneously sends emergency alert after N.K. launch
SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea fired what it claims to be a "space launch vehicle" southward Wednesday, but it fell into the Yellow Sea after an "abnormal" flight, the South Korean military said, in a botched launch that defied international criticism and warnings.
The North confirmed the failure, saying its new "Chollima-1" rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite, "Malligyong-1," fell into the sea due to the "abnormal starting of the second-stage engine," according to its official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It plans to conduct a second launch as soon as possible, the KCNA said.
Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch from Tongchang-ri on the North's west coast at 6:29 a.m. and the projectile fell into waters some 200 kilometers west of the South's southwestern island of Eocheong following its flight over the waters far west of the border island of Baengnyeong.
The South Korean military retrieved an apparent part of the North's vehicle in the Yellow Sea, the JCS said. It was a cylinder-shaped object thought to have been used to connect the first and second stages of the rocket.
Such a part could shed light on the makeup of the rocket and the North's technological progress, observers said.
The North notified Japan and the International Maritime Organization of its plan earlier this week to launch a satellite between Wednesday and June 11 despite criticism that it would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions banning any launch using ballistic missile technology.
The recalcitrant regime last launched a rocket carrying what it called a "Kwangmyongsong-4" satellite in February 2016.
originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
a reply to: putnam6
Wonder how many rocket scientists will be blamed/executed for this latest embarrassing failure?
But the false alert for SK and Japan must have caused some panic.
Oh well,I was reading that Kim is desperate to get a sattelitte in orbit so this is a big loss of face for him.
Maybe time to go hide from the public again until people forget-or will the NK media just lie and claim it was a success?
originally posted by: musicismagic
Yes, Japan was on alert also.
www.livemint.com...
originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
a reply to: putnam6
Wonder how many rocket scientists will be blamed/executed for this latest embarrassing failure?
But the false alert for SK and Japan must have caused some panic.
Oh well,I was reading that Kim is desperate to get a sattelitte in orbit so this is a big loss of face for him.
Maybe time to go hide from the public again until people forget-or will the NK media just lie and claim it was a success?