South Korea helping US locate parts of failed North Korean space rocket

Seoul, Aug 25 (EFE).- South Korea and the United States are cooperating to recover remains of the North Korean rocket ostensibly carrying a spy satellite that crashed into the sea on Thursday after its launch, Seoul’s defense minister said on Friday.

The minister, Lee Jong-sun, told the parliament that the two countries were coordinating and sharing information over the operations to recover remains of the Chollima-1 rocket.

On Thursday, Pyongyang carried out a second failed attempt to put Malligyong-1 – its first military reconnaissance satellite – after the emergency blasting system developed an error during the third-stage flight of the rocket, North Korean state news agency KCNA reported.

As per the South Korean and Japanese defense ministries, debris from various phases of the rocket fell into the sea west of the coast of South Korea and east of Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines.

Lee insisted during his speech in the parliament that Pyongyang’s action was a “clear provocation,” as it amounted to a clandestine use of ballistic missile technology, which Pyongyang has been banned from carrying out by resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

The minister said that Seoul’s large-scale joint military exercises with Washington – named the Ulchi Freedom Shield – were “substantively strengthening” the alliance’s “crisis management and response capabilities and enhancing the combined defense posture.”

The drills, which kicked off on Monday and are set to last until Aug. 31, are heavily criticized by the North Korean regime, which considers them a rehearsal to invade its territory and warned earlier this week that they could trigger a “thermonuclear war.” EFE

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