• Overnight, they claimed to have heard an explosion and seen a fire.
• However, the military did not recognize the occurrence until seven hours had passed, despite having previously claimed there were no casualties.
• The missile launch was in retaliation to North Korea’s early-day Tuesday missile launch over Japan.

After a botched missile launch during a joint rehearsal with the United States alarmed locals in the coastal city of Gangneung, the South Korean military has apologized.

Overnight, they claimed to have heard an explosion and seen a fire.

However, the military did not recognize the occurrence until seven hours had passed, despite having previously claimed there were no casualties.

The missile launch was in retaliation to North Korea’s early-day Tuesday missile launch over Japan.

This is the first time Pyongyang has fired a missile over Japan since 2017; as a result, the US, Japan, and South Korea conducted military maneuvers as a show of force. A missile barrage was also launched by Seoul and Washington into the East Sea, commonly known as the Sea of Japan, which is located between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

Later, the South Korean military acknowledged that one of their missiles, not one fired with the US, had crashed after failing shortly after launch.

The military also apologized for raising concern and added that the Hyunmoo-2 missile carried a warhead but that it did not go off.

On Wednesday at around 1:00, residents of Gangneung claimed to have seen a brilliant flash and heard an explosion (16:00 GMT Tuesday).

They were left in the dark for hours, and many of them posted on social media wondering what had happened while sharing photos and videos of the incident. The video looked to show a fire that was brightly blazing, with smoke rising in the distance.

According to the news website Kang Won Ilbo, one user wrote, “I can’t sleep because I feel anxious [after hearing] the explosion.” One person questioned whether a plane had crashed.

The fifth missile launch by North Korea in a week took place on Tuesday. Numerous of its missile tests are carried out over a route that soars to great heights, avoiding flights over its neighbors.

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