North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Seoul:

North Korea on Thursday fired an unspecified ballistic missile towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s military said, just days after Pyongyang’s failed attempt to launch a spy satellite.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide further details in its statement.

Japan’s coastguard and prime minister’s office said the North had fired a suspected ballistic missile, adding they were gathering more information.

North Korea’s latest attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit ended in a mid-air explosion on Monday, Pyongyang said, after Seoul and Tokyo had criticised the planned launch.

Japanese broadcaster NHK ran footage of what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky, which then exploded into a fireball, saying it had filmed it from northeast China at the same time as the attempted launch.

Putting a reconnaissance satellite into orbit has long been a top priority for Kim Jong Un’s regime, and it claimed to have succeeded in November, after two failed attempts last year.

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