North Korea accidentally hit one of its own cities with a missile last spring, according to a news report.
The Diplomat reported Wednesday that an intermediate-range missile test on Apr. 28, 2017 failed shortly after launch and the missile crashed in the North Korean city of Tokchon.
At the time, U.S. officials said that the missile had broken up within minutes of taking off. A Pentagon spokesperson would not confirm the details outlined in the Diplomat article, saying that the Department of Defence does not discuss intelligence.
As this was a test, it would not have been carrying an active payload, though the missile itself could still have exploded depending on how exactly it failed, according to the article.
The crashing missile appeared to have hit a small agricultural or industrial complex and damaged some buildings, according to the report’s co-author David Schmerler, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
“I can tell you that there were things that were there. I can tell you those things were removed. I know that there is a seasonal greenhouse that was damaged and there was a structure with fencing that was damaged,” he said
