South Korea postponed the launch of its first space rocket, vowing to fire it in "several days," science ministry said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) held an official press briefing and said it was delayed due to "unavoidable" reasons.

The ministry added that it will try launching its Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) again once it fixes the problem found.

Althgouh the exact reason behind the launch stoppage was yet to be confirmed, the ministry said there seems to be a problem related to valves in the high-pressure fuel tank, which caused automatic suspension of the liftoff.

The ministry said mission controllers are in the course of identifying the cause, as well as fixing it.

The ministry also highlighted it was a mere "delay," refusing to call it a "failure," citing previous cases of delays in other countries.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2009)