North Korea missile launch: In yet another provocative move, North Korea reportedly fired an "unspecified ballistic missile" towards the East Sea on Wednesday.
The latest launch by Pyongyang comes amid an ongoing record-breaking missile testing campaign for the last few months, AFP reported citing South Korea's military.
According to Japan's military, which detected the launch, the missile flew about 250 kilometres at a maximum altitude of 50 kilometres.
The relatively low trajectory seemed to align with the flight characteristics of some of North Korea’s newer short-range weapons designed to evade missile defences, it added.
Earlier on November 3, North Korea fired at least six missiles into the sea, including an intercontinental ballistic missile. It also triggered evacuation warnings and halted trains in northern Japan, adding to a recent barrage of weapons tests that has escalated tensions in the region.
The ICBM test was followed by launches of two short-range ballistic missiles in the morning, drawing swift condemnation by North Korea’s neighbours and the United States, which reacted by extending ongoing joint air force exercises with South Korea.
The South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea later fired three more short-range missiles into waters off its eastern coast.
Those launches came an hour after a senior North Korean military official issued a statement threatening retaliation over the extension of the U.S.-South Korea drills. Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missiles travelled as far as 500 kilometres.
The South’s military said the North followed those launches by firing 80 artillery rounds into the eastern parts of maritime buffer zones the rivals created off their eastern and western coasts in 2018 as part of agreements to reduce tensions.
(With inputs from agencies)
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