The engine of the Malligyong-1-1 reconnaissance satellite "exploded during the first phase of flight and failed," declared the vice-director of the North Korean National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) in a statement released by official media, adding that "the cause of the accident was the reliability of the new liquid oxygen and kerosene engine." The North Korean official indicated that a preliminary analysis of the accident pointed to a problem in one of the first-stage engines. North Korea took just over 90 minutes to report the failure of the space rocket launch, carried out at 22:44 local time (14:44 in Lisbon) today, according to the South Korean military. In a statement, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said it first detected the trail of the projectile launched from the Tongchang-ri area - in the northwest of the country, where the Sohae space launch base is located - towards the Western Sea (the name given in both Koreas to the Yellow Sea) at 22:44 local time (14:44 in Lisbon). Just two minutes after locating the launch, South Korean radars again detected the projectile "as a large cluster of fragments in North Korean waters," indicating that the rocket had failed in mid-flight. North Korea has thus added another failure to its space program, after two failed launches of the Chollima-1 rocket in the spring and summer of 2023. In November, Pyongyang finally managed to successfully launch the rocket and put its first spy satellite, the Malligyong-1, into orbit. Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told a news conference that the projectile "disappeared [from radar] in mid-flight over the Yellow Sea." "Therefore, we believe it did not reach Earth's orbit," he added. The Japanese public warning system was initially activated in Okinawa (southwest of the country) after detecting and calculating the trajectory of the projectile, but was deactivated minutes later, as it "never flew over the designated area," a Japanese government source told the Kyodo news agency. In turn, Japanese television NHK broadcast images apparently taken from the Chinese border with North Korea (the Sohae base is about 50 kilometers south of the Chinese city of Dandong) showing, in the night sky, a combustion with an irregular pattern first and then what appears to be a deflagration. Pyongyang today notified the Japanese coast guard of a launch window between today, Monday, and next June 3 to put a new spy satellite into orbit. North Korea said earlier this year that it would launch three more "Malligyong" spy satellites by 2024. The success of the November launch is believed to have been due in large part to the help of Russia, which was greatly strengthened after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit in September 2023. Washington, Seoul and Tokyo condemn these North Korean space launches, arguing that they represent a violation of UN sanctions that prohibit Pyongyang from using ballistic missile technology. Read Also: North Korea fires "unidentified projectile," says military (Portuguese version)