North Korea said its attempt to launch a new military intelligence satellite failed on Monday when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight, reports "Reuters".
The attempt came just hours after Pyongyang issued a warning that it would try to launch a satellite by June 4, which would be its second spy satellite into orbit.
Instead, the launch became the DPRK's latest failure after two other mishaps last year. It successfully put its first spy satellite into orbit in November.
"The launch of the new satellite launch vehicle failed when it exploded in mid-air," the deputy director-general of North Korea's National Aerospace Technology Administration said in a report released by state media.
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Initial analysis suggests the cause is a newly developed liquid-propellant rocket engine, but other possible causes are being investigated, the report said.
Officials in South Korea and Japan earlier said the launch appeared to have failed.
North Korea launched the satellite along the southern path off its west coast at around 10:44 p.m. local time, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
However, the JCS said it found a large amount of debris from the missile in the sea just two minutes after launch.
The object launched by North Korea disappeared over the Yellow Sea, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters, adding that the government assumed nothing had entered space.
"These launches are in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions and are a serious matter for the safety of our people," Hayashi said.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK showed video of what appeared to be an orange dot flying across the night sky and then bursting into flames in an area near the border between China and North Korea.
A representative of Japan's defense ministry told reporters that the color of the flames in the footage suggests that liquid fuel may be burning, but the details are currently being analyzed, NHK reported.
The launch appears to have originated from Dongchang-ri, a northwestern region of the country where North Korea's main space flight center is based, the JCS said.
The Japanese government issued an emergency warning on Monday for residents in the south to take cover against a possible threat from a North Korean missile, before withdrawing the warning and saying it was not expected to fly over Japanese territory.