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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has condemned North Korea’s failed spy satellite launch. The launch, the second attempt in a few months, was considered a failure as nothing was successfully thrown into earth orbit. Kishida stated that such behavior goes against UN resolutions and Japan has already firmly protested.

North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration conducted the failed launch early Thursday. The official Korean Central News Agency reported that the launch failed due to an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight. However, North Korea has vowed to conduct a third attempt in October.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff detected the launch and stated that it flew through international airspace over the Yellow Sea. The South Korean government held a National Security Council meeting to condemn both the Thursday launch and North Korea’s earlier attempt in May, criticizing the country for squandering scarce resources on reckless provocations.

The Japanese government first signaled the launch and warned residents in the southern Okinawa region to take cover. Japan had mobilized its ships and missile defense system in response to Pyongyang’s earlier notification of the launch window.

The failed launch comes after leaders from the United States, South Korea, and Japan met, and amid the ongoing joint military drills between the US and South Korea. Relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated, and attempts at diplomacy to discuss North Korea’s denuclearization have failed.

While the failure of the launch was not entirely unexpected, experts believe that North Korea will continue to iterate toward a successful launch. Despite the setbacks, Kim Jong Un has declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power and has called for increased arms production, including tactical nuclear weapons.

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