SEOUL, March 17, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - North Korea's state media was silent
Thursday after a suspected missile test ended in what Seoul said was total
failure, exploding mid-air in the skies above the capital Pyongyang almost
immediately after launch.

   The North test-fired what was most likely a ballistic missile from the
Sunan area of the capital, home to some three million people, early
Wednesday, South Korea's military said.

   The projectile exploded moments after launch, with Seoul-based specialist
NK News reporting that debris fell in or near Pyongyang as a red-tinged ball
of smoke zigzagged across the sky.

   North Korea's state media -- Rodong Sinmun and KCNA news agency --
typically carry reports on successful weapons tests within 24 hours of
launch, often with photographs.

   But state media on Thursday made no mention of the test, the tenth launch
this year in the face of biting sanctions.

   "North Korea is constantly promoting this myth that its leadership is
doing a great job. They don't want to highlight any failures," Cheong Seong-
chang, a senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute told AFP.

   The US and South Korea have said North Korea is preparing to fire an
intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at full range for the first time
since 2017, possibly disguised as a space launch.

   North Korea will mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of founder Kim Il
Sung -- current leader Kim Jong Un's grandfather -- in April and likes to
mark key domestic anniversaries with military parades or launches.

   "The country wants to keep its festive atmosphere until April 15, the
110th anniversary of its founder Kim Il Sung's birthday, and those in
leadership don't want ordinary citizens to be affected by such news," Cheong
added.

   Human rights activists said the silence on the missile test failure
demonstrated just how tightly controlled life is for North Koreans.

   "If it was London, Istanbul or Seoul imagine our newsfeeds -- filled with
video, images and eyewitness accounts," Sokeel Park of Liberty in NK said on
Twitter.

   "But it was Pyongyang, so there isn't a SINGLE public image or video. A
complete visual blackout for a huge explosion in the sky above an Asian
capital in 2022."

   Analysts have suggested Wednesday's failed test was of Pyongyang's so-
called "monster missile" -- the Hwasong 17, a new intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM) system that had never been launched before.

   Pyongyang has tested a string of banned weaponry in 2022, including seven
missile tests and two launches of what it claimed were "reconnaissance
satellites".

   South Korea and the US last week both said the "satellite" tests were
actually of a new ICBM system.

   North Korea is already under biting international sanctions over its
missile and nuclear weapons programme, but the US said the tests were a
"serious escalation" and would be punished.