South Korea's third attempt to put a satellite into orbit using a rocket suffered another setback on Thursday due to abnormality detected in the rocket's second stage.

Vice Science Minister Cho Yul-rae told a televised briefing that the launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), also known as Naro-1, was halted after abnormal signals from the thrust vector system of the rocket's second stage had been detected.

He said future launch will be decided after a probe into the cause.

The rocket was scheduled to take off from the Naro Space Center, some 480 kilometers south of Seoul, at 4:00 pm local time, but the problem in the rocket's second stage halted the countdown just about 17 minutes before the planned launch.

It was the second time that the launch had been postponed in a month.

South Korea's earlier attempt to launch the rocket on October 26 was put off due to a broken rubber seal in a link between the launch pad and the first stage.

South Korea's two previous attempts to launch the rocket ended in failure in 2009 and 2010.

Russia designed and manufactured the rocket's first stage, while South Korea built its solid-fueled second stage.