U.S. says it detected two attempted North Korean missile launches

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Strategic Command said on Thursday it had tracked two attempted missile launches by North Korea since Wednesday evening, neither of which posed a threat to North America. Army Lieutenant Colonel Martin O'Donnell, a STRATCOM spokesman, said Strategic Command detected and tracked "what we assess were attempted North Korean missile launches at 4:43 p.m. U.S. central daylight time (2143 GMT) on Wednesday and at 5:24 a.m. central daylight time (1024 GMT) on Thursday. "The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missiles launched from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America," O'Donnell said in a statement. South Korea's defense ministry said North Korea fired what appeared to have been an intermediate range ballistic missile on Thursday but it crashed seconds after the test launch. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)