The South Korean military says North Korea attempted to fire a projectile believed to be a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile(BM-25) Thursday morning.

A South Korean military official said the projectile was fired at around 6:40 a.m. near Wonsan, but the launch appears to have failed as the missile crashed within seconds of liftoff. 

Intelligence authorities in Seoul and Washington are closely analyzing why the launch failed.

The projectile is suspected to be the same Musudan model North Korea tried to launch on April 15th, the birthday of its late founder Kim Il-sung.

On that day, two Musudan missiles were deployed near Wonsan and only one was launched. It exploded in midair within seconds while the other missile has since remained on standby.