DHAKA: North Korea conducted a missile test off its east coast on Friday morning, but the launch appears to have failed, say US and South Korean officials.

The rocket has not yet been identified but is suspected to have been a previously untested ‘Musudan’ medium-range ballistic missile.

The launch coincided with the birthday of North Korea’s founding leader, Kim Il-sung,r reports the BBC.

It also comes amid particularly high tension on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea’s Yonhap national news agency quoted government sources as saying that the missile was a type of intermediate-range ballistic missile known as a Musudan, also called the BM-25.

North Korean forces were seen recently moving two such missiles.

The report said it would be the North’s first Musudan test, and that it may have at least 50 more.

The Musudan is named after the village in North Korea's northeast where a launch pad is sited.

It has a range of about 3,000 km, which extends to the US Army base on the Pacific island of Guam, but not as far as the mainland US.

The US said it had tracked the latest launch, but could also not confirm details,

‘We call again on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments and obligations,’ a State Department official said.

China also criticized what it called ‘the latest in a string of saber-rattling that, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere,’ according to the official Xinhua news agency.

BDST: 1530 HRS, APR 15, 2016
RR