SEOUL, South Korea - Space officials aborted South Korea's first rocket launch just minutes before liftoff Wednesday.
The scheduled launch, just months after North Korea was widely criticized for firing its own rocket in defiance of the United Nations, had threatened to raise Pyongyang's ire. North Korea said it would keep a close eye on the international response to Seoul's rocket launch.
The launch had been set for 5 p.m. (0800 GMT/4 a.m. EDT) from the Naro Space Center off the southern coast but was aborted less than eight minutes before liftoff, Science Ministry spokesman Kim Bo-hyun said. The reason was not immediately provided.
The two-stage rocket would be South Korea's first launch from its own territory. Since 1992, it has launched 11 satellites, all on foreign-made rockets from overseas sites. South Korea wants to become a regional space power alongside China, Japan and India.
In April, North Korea beat the South in the space game by launching a multistage rocket it said was mounted with a satellite. The U.S., Japan and other nations condemned the firing as a test of ballistic missile technology since the same rocket can be mounted with nuclear armaments.
The U.N. Security Council slapped Pyongyang with sanctions, calling the launch a violation of resolutions banning it from conducting missile-related activity.
Relations between the two Koreas - which remain technically at war - have been tense since President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in February 2008, abandoning late ex-President Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" of encouraging reconciliation with aid.
But there have been signs of warming ties in the past week, with North Korea releasing a South Korean citizen from its custody and announcing it will allow some joint projects to resume.
And in a promising sign, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il sent condolences to the family of Kim Dae-jung, who died Tuesday at age 85 after a lifetime of fighting for democracy and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula.
North Korean officials also conveyed their wish to send a delegation to pay their respects to Kim, lawmaker Park Jie-won, a former Kim Dae-jung aide, said Wednesday.
