<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">South Korea's military has apologised after a failed missile launch during a joint drill with the United States sparked alarm among residents in the coastal city of Gangneung.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>They reported hearing an explosion and seeing a fire overnight.</div><div><br></div><div>But the military, which has said there were no casualties, did not acknowledge the incident until seven hours later.</div><div><br></div><div>The launch was in response to North Korea firing a missile over Japan early on Tuesday.</div><div><br></div><div>This is the first time Pyongyang has flown a missile over Japan since 2017 - and it prompted a show of force from the US, Japan and South Korea which conducted military drills. Seoul and Washington also fired a volley of missiles into the East Sea - also known as the Sea of Japan - between the Korean peninsula and Japan.</div><div><br></div><div>The South Korean military later confirmed that one of their missiles failed soon after it was launched and crashed - this was separate to the ones launched with the US.</div><div><br></div><div>The military also said that the Hyunmoo-2 missile carried a warhead but that it did not explode, and apologised for causing worry.</div><div><br></div><div>Residents in Gangneung said they saw a bright flash and heard an explosion at around 01:00 on Wednesday (16:00 GMT Tuesday). Source: BBC</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>