U.S. detects failed North Korean midrange missile test

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. military said it detected a failed missile test by North Korea on Friday, their seventh such test this year.

U.S. Strategic Command said the test was for a Musudan intermediate missile. It occurred at 10:33 p.m. Friday in the northwest city of Kusong. The missile failed to launch and detonated on the ground, the Pentagon said.

North Korea has continued to test medium- and long-range missile systems with uneven results. The first five tests failed. On their sixth try in June, a missile was successfully launched and traveled 250 miles before landing harmlessly in the Sea of Japan, causing international condemnation and concerns North Korea was on the verge of unveiling a missile system that could threaten the region. The missile tests come along with advances in the dictatorship's nuclear weapons program.

Though the North has successfully detonated nuclear bombs, they have not shown the capacity to develop bombs small enough they could be fit onto a missile in order to deliver a nuclear payload. Nor, as Friday's test shows, have they perfected the missile technology itself.

All the tests are in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning them. The Security Council has passed resolutions instituting harsh economic and arms embargoes on the North in response to its continued pursuit of nuclear weapons.