South Korea postpones rocket launch for third time: Official

South Korea has postponed launching a long-range rocket to put a satellite into orbit due to technical problems, an official says.

“We have decided not to launch the rocket this month,” an unnamed official with South Korea’s Science Ministry said on Monday.

The official added that the engineers are checking the rocket to prepare it for launch but the process is expected to take more than one month.

On Thursday, the engineers found a problem in the propulsion system of the 140-ton Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1) and removed it from the launch pad at the Naro Space Center on the south coast.

The rocket was scheduled to be launched last week. The rocket was initially scheduled to be launched on October 26 before being delayed by a month.

It would have been South Korea’s third attempt to put a satellite into orbit after consecutive failures with the same KSLV-1 in 2009 and 2010.

On Saturday, North Korea also said that it would launch a long-range rocket to place a satellite into orbit between December 10 and 22.