North Korea has released images from its failed launch on Wednesday of a space launch vehicle purportedly carrying a military spy satellite.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) released photos on Thursday showing the Chollima-1 rocket lifting off from a launch pad in the Tongchang-ri area of North Pyongan Province presumed to be a new facility some three kilometers away from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

The thicker payload system in comparison to the rest of the body suggests that the rocket was carrying a satellite instead of a warhead, while at least two streams of flames indicate that multiple engines had been clustered.

The release of photos from a failed launch is considered rare for Pyongyang, with the latest attempt ending prematurely as the rocket fell into the Yellow Sea after the first-stage separation due to a failure in the second-stage engine system.

Insiders speculate the regime chose to promptly acknowledge the failure and release the images to show that the rocket was clearly not carrying a warhead nor a weapons system.