DPRK fires 6th suspected missile

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Wednesday fired the sixth suspected Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile, the second in the day, which flew 400 kilometers, nearing to a required distance to be successful.

An official at Republic of Korea's defense ministry said military authorities of ROK and the United States are conducting detailed analysis on whether the test-launch was successful.

Seoul believed that a ballistic missile is required to fly at least 300 km to be considered successful in a test-firing, while Yonhap news agency reported that a ballistic missile should fly at least 500 km to be successful.

It marked the sixth test-launch of the Musudan missile, which is known to be capable of hitting parts of the US territory such as Guam and the outer reaches of Alaska. It allegedly has a range of 3,000 to 4,000 km.

Earlier in the day, the DPRK test-fired what was believed to be a Musudan missile near Wonsan area, the official said. Yonhap cited another military official as saying that the first missile of the day flew in an abnormal trajectory, indicating a failure of the fifth test-firing.

A ROK government source said that the first suspected Musudan missile of the day flew about 150 km before being fragmented into several pieces during the flight.

All of the previous test-firings of the Musudan missile are believed to have failed.The first test-launch on April 15 failed as it exploded in midair several seconds after takeoff. The April 28 launch also failed as those exploded in midair or crashed in waters after liftoff. The fourth test was estimated to have blasted on its mobile launcher even before takeoff, according to Seoul's military.