North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters, officials have said.
South Korea's military detected the long-range missile launch from the North's capital region around 10 a.m., the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
It said South Korea's military bolstered its surveillance posture and maintained readiness in close coordination with the United States.
Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters that the North Korean missile was likely launched on a lofted trajectory, at a steep angle that North Korea typically uses to avoid neighbouring countries when it tests long-range missiles.
Hamada said the missile was expected to land at sea about 550 kilometers (340 miles) east of the coast of the Korean Peninsula outside of the Japanese exclusive economic zone.
North Korea's long-range missile program targets the mainland U.S. Since 2017, North Korea has performed a slew of intercontinental ballistic missile launches as part of its efforts to acquire nuclear-tipped weapons capable of striking major U.S. cities. Some experts say North Korea still has some technologies to master to possess functioning nuclear-armed ICBMs.
The Japan Coast Guard had issued an alert and warned vessels to avoid 'falling objects.'
Officials said in their alert: "A possible ballistic missile was launched from North Korea, according to the Ministry of Defense.
"Vessels should pay attention to future information, and if they find falling objects, do not approach and report relevant information to the Japan Coast Guard."
The launch came a day after North Korea threatened "shocking" consequences to protest what it called a U.S. spy plane's reconnaissance activity near its territory.
The United States and South Korea dismissed the North's accusations and urged it to refrain from any acts or rhetoric that raises animosities.
In a statement on Monday night, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, claimed the US spy plane flew over the North’s eastern exclusive economic zone eight times earlier in the day. She claimed the North scrambled warplanes to chase away the US plane.
She said: “A shocking incident would occur in the long run in the 20-40 kilometre section in which the US spy planes habitually intrude into the sky above the economic water zone” of North.”
North Korea has made numerous similar threats over alleged US reconnaissance activities, but its latest statements came amid heightened animosities over North Korea’s barrage of missile tests earlier this year.
