South Korea’s military has apologized after a failed missile test during a joint exercise with the United States sparked alarm among residents of the coastal city of Gangneung.
They reported hearing an explosion and seeing fire overnight.
But the army, which has said there were no casualties, did not acknowledge the incident until seven hours later.
The test was conducted in response to North Korea’s missile launch over Japan on Tuesday morning.
It is the first time Pyongyang has fired a missile over Japan since 2017 – and a show of force by the US, Japan and South Korea, which have held military exercises. Seoul and Washington fired a volley of missiles into the East Sea – also known as the Sea of ​​Japan – between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
South Korea’s military later confirmed that one of its missiles had failed and crashed shortly after launch – it was separate from the missiles launched with the US.
The military also said the Hyunmoo-2 missile had a warhead but did not explode, and apologized for causing trouble.
Gangneung residents said they saw a bright flash and heard an explosion around 01:00 on Wednesday (16:00 GMT Tuesday).
They were left in the dark for hours, and many took to social media to share photos and videos of the incident, wondering what had happened. A glowing fire could be seen in the footage, with smoke billowing in the distance.
“I can’t sleep because I feel anxious when I hear the explosion,” said one user, according to news site Kang Won Elbo. Another wondered if a plane had crashed.
An explosion near Gangneung last night caused a social media storm in South Korea. Zero media reports or emergency alerts, raising suspicions of a cover up, a jet crash, or a missile launch.
— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) October 5, 2022
It turns out it was the latter, gone very wrong.pic.twitter.com/AjT6dHPcYL
