North Korea’s failed attempt to launch a reconnaissance satellite into space on Wednesday morning sparked air raid alerts and canceled an evacuation order for the South Korean capital.
Residents of Seoul received a “wartime alert” from the government on their mobile phones telling them to prepare to evacuate the city.
“A warning was issued in Seoul at 6:32 today,” a message from the Seoul Metropolitan Government read. “Citizens should be prepared to evacuate and let children and the elderly evacuate first.”
Actual evacuation orders were issued shortly after that news. But the order was withdrawn about 10 minutes later after South Korean authorities admitted it was a “false alarm”.
Japan also issued a missile alert to the southern island of Okinawa, but quickly dismissed it after the missile failed to land on Japanese territory.
The alert was triggered by a rocket fired from the Sohae satellite launch station in North Pyongan province in western North Korea. Pyongyang said this week it was preparing to launch its first spy satellite into space.
After North Korea notified the International Maritime Organization of its plans, Tokyo warned on Monday that it would shoot down any projectiles that threatened its territory.
The rocket was fired westward on Wednesday morning, toward the Yellow Sea, which separates the Korean peninsula from mainland China. It landed about 200 kilometers from South Korea’s Uocheong Island in the Yellow Sea, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
North Korean state media quickly acknowledged the launch failure. According to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency, the rocket “fell into the West Sea after the secondary engine ignited abnormally”.
The KCNA report added that scientists were investigating the “serious defect” that led to the failure and that the country’s space agency would “conduct various tests to conduct the second launch in the shortest possible time”.
South Korea’s military said on Wednesday it was conducting a salvage operation to recover part of the space launch vehicle.
Japanese Defense Minister Koichi Hamada told reporters that Tokyo would keep its ballistic missile defense system on alert given Pyongyang’s indication that it could launch the satellite anytime between May 31 and June 11.
“We will carefully analyze the reasons for the missile’s disappearance. We will respond firmly because North Korea’s notification period is still ongoing,” Hamada said.
The White House condemned North Korea’s missile launch, saying the move had raised tensions and threatened to destabilize the region, according to National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge.
“The door to diplomacy is not closed, but Pyongyang must immediately stop its provocative actions and choose engagement instead,” he added.
The evacuation order, which ended on Wednesday, raised questions about the South Korean government’s early warning system, experts said.
“In a real attack, warnings and sirens can save lives by prompting people to take shelter,” said Ankit Panda, a nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. destabilizing.”
Additional reporting by Kang Buseong in Seoul and Demetri Sevastopulo in Tokyo