Seoul, South Korea(CNN) North Korea attempted to fire a missile from its eastern coast Friday, but the launch ended in failure, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
South Korea's military did not specify what sort of missile was part of the test. The attempt involved an intermediate-range Musudan missile, according to South Korean media reports.
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The launch effort came on the birthday of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, on the holiday known as "Day of the Sun."
"If the reports are true, and this mobile missile launch attempt did fail, it would be a major disappointment for the North Korean regime because it is happening on the most significant holiday of the year," said CNN's Will Ripley from Pyongyang.
No official announcement had been made about the test within the country, Ripley said. Based on past failures, it was unlikely one would ever be made.
"Most North Koreans will never know that it happened," he said.
U.S. detected the launch attempt
A U.S. defense official said a North Korean missile launch had failed at 4:33 p.m. ET Thursday, after the U.S. Strategic Command systems detected and tracked the attempt. At this time, there was "no evidence the missile reached flight," a U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr.
Earlier this week, U.S. intelligence satellites spotted signs that North Korea may have been preparing to launch a mobile ballistic missile. Officials had told CNN that if the regime proceeds with a launch, the most likely scenario is the launch of the Musudan missile.
A U.S. State Department official said after the launch failure: "We have seen the reports. We are closely monitoring the situation."
"We call again on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments and obligations."
The images are said to show small vehicles, a support building and portal.
Eventful year for North Korea
Tensions have ratcheted up on the divided Korean peninsula this year as Pyongyang has made a series of assertions about developments in its military capability.
North Korea's verbal volleys
North Korea has a history of using creative language to express loathing for its enemies. Here are some of the regime's more colorful threats against the West.
March 2016: North Korea warned it would make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to
joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Pyongyang issued a long statement promising that "time will prove how the crime-woven history of the U.S. imperialists who have grown corpulent through aggression and war will come to an end and how the Park Geun Hye group's disgraceful remaining days will meet a miserable doom as it is keen on the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north."
March 2016: Following the imposition of strict U.N. sanctions, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country's "nuclear warheads need to be ready for use at any time," the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported.
January 2016: North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a thermonuclear weapon, justifying its right to have an H-bomb on the grounds of "self defense."
September 2015: In a statement, North Korea said its nuclear arsenal was ready for use "at any time."
August 2015: As forces from the U.S. and South Korea took part in joint military drills. North Korea's state media referred to the exercises, which started on August 17, as "madcap" and issued a stern warning to America: "If the U.S. ignites a war in the end, far from drawing a lesson taught by its bitter defeat in the history, the DPRK will bring an irrevocable disaster and disgrace to it."
August 2015: On August 23, as North Korean negotiators were meeting with their South Korean counterparts over current tensions, a KCTV presenter appeared on air repeating North Korea's ambitions to "destroy the warmongering South Korean puppet military."
December 2014: The
FBI said it suspected North Korea was behind a hack of Sony Entertainment, which led executives to initially cancel the theatrical release of "The Interview." The film was a comedy about an American television personality who the CIA asks to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea threatened "merciless" action against the U.S. if the film was released, accusing the U.S. of retaliating for the hack by shutting down North Korea's Internet access. North Korea's National Defense Commission
also called U.S. President Barack Obama "reckless" and a "monkey."
July 2014: North Korea threatens to hit the White House and Pentagon with nuclear weapons. American "imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival," North Korean officials reportedly said after the country accused the U.S. of increasing hostilities on the border with South Korea. "Our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon -- the sources of all evil," North Korean Gen. Hwang Pyong-So said,
according to The Telegraph.
March 2013: Angered by tougher U.N. sanctions and joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea, the
Supreme Command of North Korea's military vowed to put "on highest alert" the country's "rocket units" that are assigned to strike "U.S. imperialist aggressor troops in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zone in the Pacific." Whether Pyongyang has the will to back up such doomsday talk is a perplexing question,
but there is evidence that its know-how -- in terms of uranium enrichment, nuclear testing and missile technology -- is progressing.
February 2013: In a message to the United States and South Korea,
North Korea vowed "miserable destruction" if "your side ignites a war of aggression by staging reckless joint military exercises."
June 2012: Once again, North Korea
vowed to be "merciless" in its promised attack on the United States, this time threatening a "sacred war" as it aimed artillery at South Korean media groups. North Korea
was mad that South Korean journalists had criticized Pyongyang children's festivals meant to foster allegiance to the Kim family.
April 2012: North Korea's state-run news agency
reported that "the moment of explosion is approaching fast" and promised "merciless" strikes against the United States. "The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation," it said. Later that month, Pyongyang
launched a long-range rocket that broke apart and fell into the sea. The launch came during preparations for a grand party that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea.
November 2011: North Korea's
military threatened to turn the capital of South Korea into a "sea of fire," according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
2009: After the U.S. pledge to give nuclear defense to South Korea,
Pyongyang threatened a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation."
2002: U.S. President George W. Bush includes North Korea in an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, which North Korea brushes off as a "little short of a declaration of war." North Korea reportedly
threatened to "wipe out the aggressors." That year, North Korea also threatened to
kick out international inspectors who were in the country to monitor its compliance with global nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January. It said it succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear warheads to fit on medium-range ballistic missiles -- which U.S. intelligence analysts say is probably true.
In response, the U.N. Security Council -- with the support of China -- imposed broad sanctions against North Korea in March. But the sanctions and international pressure have not held any sway in North Korea's aggressive efforts to build up its weapons and nuclear capabilities. The country maintains that it's developing weapons to defend itself from the United States.
North Korea boasts test of engine for intercontinental missile
The Unification Ministry in South Korea suspected that Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, ordered the latest missile test.
"By showing its strong will that it will continue to do so despite the current sanction against the country, it appears to be attempting to split opinions in the international community as well as building up achievements for Kim Jong Un ahead of the Party's Congress," said Jeong Joon-hee, the spokesman for the ministry.
North Korea plans to convene its seventh Communist Party Congress in May this year -- which is rare and potentially significant. The last congress of the Workers' Party of Korea was held in 1980 and that culminated in the announcement that Kim Jong Il, the father of the current leader, would take power.
CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.