DPRK's Recent Missile Launch a Failure: S.Korean Minister

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 07, 2003

DPRK's Recent Missile Launch a Failure: S.Korean Minister

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South Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-kil said Friday he deemed that Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s recent test-firing of a missile into the eastern waters near the Korean Peninsula was a failed test.

"Considering that the range of the missile the DPRK fired on Feb.24 was 110 kilometers, much longer than that of its existing missiles, we presumed that it was a test fire of a new ground-to-ship cruise missile," Cho told lawmakers in a defense committee meeting of the National Assembly.

Moreover, the defense chief was quoted by South Korean national news agency Yonhap News as saying that the Defense Ministry has observed that the DPRK made full preparations ahead of the test-firing of the missile, which appeared to blast short of its target.

The DPRK has once stunned the region in September 1998 by firing a rocket over Japanese territory and into the Pacific. But the DPRK insisted it just successfully launched a man-made satellite. This time it was alleged to project the short-range missile into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on theeve of President Roh Moo-hyun's inauguration.

It is the first time that South Korean Defense Ministry disclosed its researching result on the DPRK missile-launch.

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