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By Park Si-so
The mid-air explosion of a North Korean missile on Saturday morning was deliberate, not a failed launch as claimed, South Korean government officials say.
It is believed the North was testing a warhead explosion, an essential step toward testing a nuclear warhead explosion.
"We don't believe the mid-air explosion was an accident," cable news channel YTN quoted a government official as saying. "It's believed the explosion was a test to develop a nuclear weapon different from existing ones."
The nuclear-armed isolated country fired a ballistic missile on Saturday morning from near Pukchang in Pyeongannam-do (South Pyeongan Province).
The missile climbed to 71 kilometers before exploding within North Korean territory, according to the South Korean and U.S. defense ministries.
The explosion happened two or three minutes after blast-off.
Military experts say mid- or long-range missiles normally stabilize at 20 or 30 kilometers above ground. In the latest test, the missile climbed to three times the so-called "stabilizing height, which means the chances that any internal mechanical failure caused the explosion were "very low," according to experts.
North Korean media used the term "test of nuclear warhead" for the first time on Sept. 9, the same day the North conducted its fifth underground nuclear test.
The South Korean military has since raised the possibility that the North might conduct an "unconventional" nuclear test. This means the North's sixth nuclear test, if any, would not be underground.
