Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrives at the Republic of Korea fleet base in Busan for a routine port visit as part of a regularly scheduled deployment. 
 
 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea tried but failed to fire an intermediate-range missile, U.S. and South Korean officials said Sunday. 
 
 It was the first attempted missile launch since the North conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test Sept. 9, prompting a wave of international condemnation and efforts to impose new sanctions against the isolated country. 
 
 The missile test also occurred hours before the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier docked in the southeastern port city of Busan on Sunday for what the Navy called a routine visit after a week of maritime war games with the South Korean navy. 
 
 North Korea watchers have predicted in recent weeks that Pyongyang was preparing for another provocation, with satellite images showing activity at its main nuclear testing facility as well as its Sohae satellite-launching station. 
 
 The Pentagon said U.S. Strategic Command systems detected the failed launch of a presumed Musudan missile near the northwestern city of Kusong on Saturday. 
 
 Pentagon spokesman Gary Ross strongly condemned the missile test and stressed the U.S. commitment to defending allies South Korea and Japan is “ironclad.” 
 
 “This provocation only serves to increase the international community’s resolve to counter the DPRK’s prohibited activities,” he said, using the acronym for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 
 
 “We call on North Korea to refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the region,” he added. 
 
 South Korea’s military said the missile failed immediately after launch, according to the Yonhap news agency. The Joint Chiefs of Staff condemned what it called an “illegal provocation” that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting the North from using ballistic missile technology. 
 
 North Korea has carried out an unprecedented number of missile tests this year, and experts say it is showing clear technical progress in its nuclear weapons program despite numerous failures. 
 
 Only one of the Musudan missiles, which have a range that puts them in reach of U.S. bases in Japan and Guam, is believed to have flown far enough to be considered a success. But experts say the North’s scientists learn from each failure. 
 
 Pyongyang has conducted five underground nuclear tests since 2006 , including two this year — one in January and the other on Sept. 9 — causing tensions to rise on the divided peninsula. 
 
 The U.S. and South Korea regularly conduct joint military exercises, which they insist are defensive in nature. North Korea, however, considers them a rehearsal for an invasion. It denounced the participation of the USS Ronald Reagan — the Navy’s only forward-deployed carrier — in naval exercises this week. 
 
 The Navy flew a group of reporters out to the ship 150 to 175 miles southwest of Osan Air Base on Friday to show off the carrier’s striking power. Nine fighter jets took off and 15 made landings during a 30-minute demonstration of FA-18 Super Hornets, E-2C Hawkeyes and the EA-18G Growler. 
 
 U.S. officials said the Ronald Reagan’s arrival in Busan was a routine port call that would allow the 5,500 crew members to engage with their South Korean counterparts. But Navy commanders stressed they were ready to defend the peninsula. 
 
 “We remain dedicated to the security of this nation … and this region,” Rear Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of Naval Forces Korea, said in remarks after the ship docked. 
 
 He said the carrier strike group was there “to send a clear signal of the strength of our alliance and our resolve to protect (South Korea) from unprovoked acts of aggression.” 
 
 gamel.kim@stripes.com 
 
 Twitter: @kimgamel ||||| FILE - In this March 14, 2017 file photo, a U.S. Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter approaches the deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during the annual joint military exercise called... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this March 14, 2017 file photo, a U.S. Navy's F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter approaches the deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during the annual joint military exercise called Foal Eagle between South Korea and the United States at an unidentified location in the international... (Associated Press) 
 
 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a newly developed powerful ballistic missile into its eastern waters Wednesday, U.S. and South Korean officials said, amid worries the North might conduct nuclear or long-range rocket tests ahead of the first summit between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week. 
 
 The initial U.S. and South Korean assessments indicated it was a KN-15 medium-range missile, whose first publicly known test in February was considered by many foreign experts as a potentially worrying development. It uses solid fuel already loaded inside the missile, which would shorten launch preparation times, boost the weapon's mobility and make it harder for outsiders to detect the signs of its liftoff. 
 
 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had said after the February launch that the missile, called "Pukguksong-2" in North Korea, provided another nuclear attack capability against the United States and South Korea. Most of North Korea's missiles use liquid propellant, which usually must be added on the launch pad before the weapon is fired. 
 
 The missile fired from land in the area of the eastern coastal city of Sinpo on Wednesday morning flew about 60 kilometers (37 miles), according to a South Korean military statement. The missile launched in February flew about 500 kilometers (310 miles), but it wasn't immediately clear if the shorter distance meant Wednesday's launch was a failure. 
 
 North Korean state media said the "Pukguksong-2" missile is a surface-to-surface missile that can carry nuclear warheads. It is likely to be an upgraded version of the submarine-launched missile named "Pukguksong" launched last summer. Many South Korean experts say "Pukguksong-2" missile would be a greater security threat because it can be launched anywhere from a ground-based mobile vehicle. While submarines are also a stealthy way to do that, North Korea doesn't have enough of them. 
 
 Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Honolulu, said he was expecting North Korea would do something to coincide with the Trump-Xi summit, perhaps conduct a nuclear test. The missile launch may be a precursor, with more to come as the summit starts later this week, Cossa said. 
 
 "I've joked before that they don't mind being hated but they definitely hate to be ignored," Cossa said. 
 
 Recent outside satellite imagery show possible preparations for a new atomic test at the North's main nuclear test site, such as the laying of communication cables used to initiate a test and collect data. North Korea's state media has also said the world will soon witness what it calls "eventful successes" the country achieves in the space development. Washington, Seoul and others call the North's space program a cover for its long-range missile development program. 
 
 South Korea's Foreign Ministry called the North's latest missile launch a "reckless provocation" that posed a threat to international peace, while Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the country lodged a strong protest over the launch. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged the launch in a statement but said the U.S. had spoken enough about North Korea and would not comment further. 
 
 Analysts says North might time nuclear and long-range rocket tests to the April 15 birthday of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
 North Korea is pushing hard to upgrade its weapons systems to cope with what it calls U.S. hostility. Many weapons experts say the North could have a functioning nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the continental U.S. within a few years. North Korea carried out two nuclear tests last year. 
 
 The North's latest missile launch also came as it is responding annual military drills between the United States and South Korea with weapons tests and harsh rhetoric. North Korea sees the drills as an invasion rehearsal. 
 
 Two weeks ago, the South Korean and U.S. militaries said they had detected a failed North Korean ballistic missile launch. Earlier in March, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles that flew about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), with three of them landing in waters that Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. 
 
 __ 
 
 Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report. ||||| The South Korean military says North Korea attempted to launch a missile on April 15, the birthday of the country’s "eternal president," Kim Il Sung, but that it failed. (Reuters) 
 
 North Korea tried but failed to launch an intermediate-range missile Friday, American and South Korean military officials said, dealing the regime an embarrassing blow on the most important day of the year on the North Korean calendar. 
 
 To mark the 104th anniversary of the birthday of the country’s "eternal president," Kim Il Sung, North Korea launched a missile from its east coast at about 5:30 a.m. local time. But it deviated from a "normal" trajectory, an official from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters in Seoul. 
 
 “North Korea appears to have tried a missile launch from the East Sea [Sea of Japan] area early morning today, but it is presumed to have failed,” the official said. 
 
 But South Korea's military is still on high alert. "We are preparing against the possibility that the North could carry out heavyweight provocations at any time, including the fifth nuclear test," a military official said, according to the Yonhap News Agency. 
 
 [North Korea unveils homemade engine for missile capable of striking U.S.] 
 
 A U.S. defense official said that the U.S. Strategic Command systems had also “detected and tracked” the missile. “We assess that the launch failed,” he said. 
 
 Initial analysis suggested that the missile was a Musudan, also known as a BM-25, the kind that South Korean authorities had detected being moved Thursday near Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast. 
 
 The Musudan is an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of traveling 1,500 to 2,500 miles — putting the U.S. territory of Guam within reach — and of carrying a 1.3-ton nuclear warhead, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative. 
 
 North Korea has displayed the Musudan at its military parades and is believed to have supplied assembly kits for the missile to Iran, but it had never tested this model of missile before. 
 
 
 
 Jeffrey Lewis, head of the East Asia program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, said the failure would “reinforce the persistent denial” about North Korea’s capabilities. 
 
 “But in fact, they will have learned a lot from this launch. Not as much as they would have learned if it had succeeded, but still something,” Lewis said. 
 
 The Musudan uses the same sort of engine as the submarine-launched ballistic missile that North Korea tested last year but that also failed. 
 
 “Clearly they have a problem, but maybe next time it will work. It took them a couple of launches to get the Taepodong-2 going,” Lewis said, referring to the ballistic-missile technology that has now put two North Korean satellites into orbit. 
 
 At the same time, North Korea has been making a series of claims about technological advances, from building solid-fuel rocket engines to miniaturizing nuclear warheads. The regime recently claimed that it could send a ­nuclear-tipped missile to the U.S. mainland. 
 
 [North Korea claims it could wipe out Manhattan with a hydrogen bomb] 
 
 Although this has not been proved, U.S. military officials and nonproliferation experts say that North Korea is clearly working toward this goal. The Musudan test could be part of this program. 
 
 At a hearing of a Senate Armed Services subcommittee this week, Brian McKeon, a senior Pentagon official, said North Korea’s weapons and missile programs pose a growing threat to the United States and its allies in East Asia. 
 
 North Korea is “seeking to develop longer-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the United States and continues efforts to bring [a road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile] to operational capacity,” he said. 
 
 Although an untested long-range missile was unlikely to be reliable, North Korea’s successful satellite launches showed it was mastering the technologies that would be needed, McKeon said. 
 
 China’s official Xinhua News Agency said North Korea’s failed firing of a mid-range ballistic missile Friday was “the latest in a string of saber-rattling that, if unchecked, will lead the country to nowhere.” 
 
 Since Kim Jong Un ordered his military to conduct a fourth nuclear test in January — which North Korea claimed was a hydrogen-bomb explosion, although outside experts are highly skeptical — there has been a steady stream of projectiles emanating from North Korea. 
 
 1 of 50 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × What life looks like inside North Korea View Photos Scenes from the hermit kingdom. Caption Scenes from the hermit kingdom. April 14, 2016 A girl dances ballet at the Mangyongdae Children’s Palace in the Pyongyang suburbs. The large facility, opened in 1989, has hundreds of rooms for various activities, including mathematics, chemistry, computer science, sports, music and dance practice. Franck Robichon/European Pressphoto Agency Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 In February, Kim oversaw the launch of what North Korea said was a satellite launch vehicle but which was widely viewed as part of an intercontinental ballistic missile program. Since then, there have been numerous short-range missile launches and rockets fired into the Sea of Japan. 
 
 [North Korea has new rocket system that could strike Seoul this year, South Korea warns] 
 
 North Korea is banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions from launching ballistic missiles or carrying out nuclear tests, but it continues to do so. 
 
 The international community has responded to North Korea’s latest provocations with tough sanctions aimed at cutting off the state’s ability to procure parts and finance its weapons-of-mass-destruction program. 
 
 This push coincided with two-month-long drills between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, during which they are practicing their response to the collapse of North Korea. The drills, which conclude at the end of this month, include computer-simulated “decapitation strikes” on the North Korean leadership. 
 
 Amid this background of heightened tensions, North Korea has been preparing for two key events — the anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth and the first congress of the communist Workers’ Party in 36 years. 
 
 The country is in the grip of a “70-day campaign” to prepare for the congress, set for early next month. Analysts expect Kim Jong Un to use the event to bolster his legitimacy. 
 
 Kim, who is 33, is not only incredibly young by the standards of Korea, where age is revered, but he also did not have the kind of long preparation and introduction that his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, enjoyed. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 North Korea scolds Obama by adopting the voice of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 What it’s like to be an American held in North Korea 
 
 The weird world of North Korea’s restaurants abroad ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military detected a failed North Korean test launch of an intermediate ballistic missile, the Pentagon said on Saturday. 
 
 FILE PHOTO - A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo 
 
 The test-firing was the latest in a series conducted by North Korea in violation of United Nations resolutions, drawing a fresh U.S. vow to take its concerns to the world body and seek to hold North Korea “accountable for these actions.” 
 
 The U.S. Strategic Command’s systems detected that the Musudan missile failed in a launch conducted near North Korea’s northwestern city of Kusong, the Pentagon said in a statement. 
 
 It provided no details on what went wrong but said the launch never posed a threat to North America. 
 
 “We strongly condemn this and North Korea’s other recent missile tests,” said U.S. Navy Commander Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesman. “Our commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, is ironclad. We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation.” 
 
 South Korea’s military said early on Sunday that North Korea fired what it believed was a Musudan missile at 0333 GMT on Saturday (11:33 p.m. EDT on Friday) but it failed immediately after launch. It did not elaborate on the reason for the failure. 
 
 “The North’s ballistic missile launch is a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and we strongly condemn the North’s illegal act of provocation,” the South’s office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. 
 
 Ross said the United States called on North Korea to “refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the region.” 
 
 The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia said late last month that Washington would speed up deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system to South Korea given the pace of North Korea’s missile tests, and it would be stationed there “as soon as possible.” 
 
 South Korea and the United States have agreed to deploy the anti-missile system in the South to counter the North’s threat. China, the North’s main diplomatic ally, has opposed the move saying it would destabilize regional security balance, but Washington has said the system was not aimed at China. 
 
 Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, also told a congressional hearing the United States was in discussions with international partners, including the European Union, to deny North Korea access to international banking infrastructure after its recent nuclear and missile tests. 
 
 Pyongyang is already under heavy international sanctions over its missile and nuclear tests. North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear blast on Sept. 9.
– US defense agencies detected an attempted missile launch in western North Korea late Friday, near the city of Kusong, Reuters reports. The object—believed to be a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile—failed immediately after launch, per South Korea's military. American and South Korean defense agencies declined to provide any further details, but both governments condemned the act as unprovoked aggression. The missile test is the first since North Korea's latest underground nuclear test, which took place on Sept. 9. While it's murky whether North Korea actually has nuclear warheads, so far it hasn't verifiably demonstrated the technical capability, even if it does have them, to mount those weapons on long-range missiles that could strike the US mainland. The missile launch follows a week of joint US-South Korean war games, which the North has called a dry run for an invasion, Stars and Stripes reports. The presence of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, which arrived in Busan, South Korea, hours before the failed missile launch, lends a further show of muscle to repeated US commitments to defend South Korea against northern aggression.