The U.S. military detected a failed North Korean test launch of an intermediate ballistic missile, the Pentagon said on Saturday. The test-firing was the latest in a series conducted by North Korea in violation of United Nations resolutions, drawing a fresh U.S. vow to take its concerns to the world body and seek to hold North Korea “accountable for these actions.”
The U.S. Strategic Command’s systems detected that the Musudan missile failed in a launch conducted near North Korea’s northwestern city of Kusong, the Pentagon said in a statement. It provided no details on what went wrong but said the launch never posed a threat to North America. “We strongly condemn this and North Korea’s other recent missile tests,” said U.S. Navy Commander Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman. “Our commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, is ironclad.