A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea’s missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military said on May 17.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not immediately provide details of the projectile or its trajectory.

Also read | North Korea says Kim Jong-un supervised tests of rocket launchers targeting Seoul

North Korea has launched a range of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as tactical rockets in recent months, describing them as part of a program to upgrade its defensive capabilities.

Earlier on Friday, the powerful sister of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said its tactical rockets were intended solely as a deterrent against South Korean military aggression, while denying that Pyongyang was exporting the weapons.

The missile launch comes at the same time as a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Chinese northeastern city of Harbin.

Seoul:

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, the South Korean military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday.

The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang’s state media said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a successful test of a solid-fuel engine for a “new-type intermediate-range hypersonic missile”.

Japan also said it “appeared” North Korea had fired the missile, Kyodo news agency reported, adding that the country’s coastguard believed the missile had fallen.

Tuesday’s launch is the third ballistic missile test so far this year, after the solid-fuel one overseen by Kim in March and another tipped with a manoeuvrable hypersonic warhead in January.

The North claimed last year it had successfully tested its first solid-fuelled ICBM — the largest, longest-range category of ballistic missile — hailing it as a key breakthrough for the country’s nuclear counterattack capabilities.

Solid-fuel missiles do not need to be fuelled before launch, making them harder to find and destroy, as well as quicker to use.

So far this year, the nuclear-armed North has declared South Korea its “principal enemy”, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul, South Korea:

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea on Monday for the first time in two months, at a time when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul to attend a conference hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol on advancing democracy.

South Korea’s military said the missile was fired to the east of the Korean peninsula. Japan’s coast guard also reported the launch of what it said appeared to be a ballistic missile by North Korea and specified that it has already fallen.

Japan later said it detected what appeared to be a second ballistic missile launch by the North, also falling outside its exclusive economic zone area.

North Korea’s military has been conducting exercises using conventional weapons in recent weeks, often personally overseen by the isolated state’s leader Kim Jong Un.

The show of force by Pyongyang comes as the militaries of South Korea and the United States carried out large-scale annual joint military drills for 10 days ending last Thursday.

On Sunday, the South Korean military also mobilized marines, attack helicopters and amphibious assault vehicles in drills aimed at surging troop numbers to reinforce western islands near the sea border with North Korea, which had been bombed by the North in 2010.

Blinken is among senior officials from around the world attending the Summit for Democracy conference hosted by South Korea which opens on Monday. He will also meet his South Korean counterpart

The summit is an initiative of U.S. President Joe Biden aimed at discussing ways to stop democratic backsliding and erosion of rights and freedoms worldwide.

At its last ballistic launch on Jan 14, North Korea fired what it said was an intermediate range hypersonic missile using solid fuel on to test new booster engines and a maneuverable warhead.

A month later, it launched multiple cruise missiles off its east coast including what it said was a new surface-to-sea missile in the latest of a series of such tests.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)