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North Korea's test of intermediate range missile fails again: South Korea

South Korea says the North is ready to conduct a nuclear test at any time.

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A defence ministry official said that the launch from near the North Korean east coast city of Wonsan.
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North Korea fired what appeared to have been an intermediate range ballistic missile on Thursday but it crashed seconds after the test launch, South Korea's defence ministry said, the second such failure in April.

A defence ministry official said that the launch from near the North Korean east coast city of Wonsan appeared to have been of a Musudan missile with a range of more than 3,000 km, at about 6:40 a.m. local time (2140 GMT). Isolated North Korea has conducted a flurry of missile launches and tests of military technology in the run-up to a rare congress of its ruling Workers' Party that is set to begin on May 6.

Thursday's apparent failure, however, marks another setback for young leader Kim Jong Un. A similar missile launched on the April 15 birthday of his grandfather and the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, exploded in what the US Defence Department called a "fiery, catastrophic" failure.

South Korea also says the North is ready to conduct a nuclear test at any time. It would be its fifth nuclear test. The analysing the cause of the missile crash, declining to comment on why the launch was revealed hours after it took place.

The South's Yonhap News Agency said the fired missile was not detected by South Korean military radar because it did not fly above a few hundred metres, and was spotted by a US satellite. The South Korean defence ministry said it could not confirm that report. On Saturday, North Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile, which travelled about 30 km off its east coast. 

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