North Korea's mid-range missile launch appears to have failed

Seoul: North Korea on Thursday fired a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile, but it appeared to have failed, South Korea's defence ministry said.

The projectile was launched at 6.40 a.m. (local time) from the Wonsan area in North Korea, Xinhua news agency quoted a defence ministry official as saying.

The launch appeared to have failed as the projectile was believed to have crashed several seconds after liftoff, the official said.