North Korea fires ballistic missile

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, days after Pyongyang staged live-fire exercises near the tense maritime border with the South.

“North Korea fires unidentified ballistic missile towards East Sea,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said had it detected the launch but gave no further details.

Japan’s coast guard said that an “object, potentially ballistic missile, launched from North Korea,” citing information from the country’s defense ministry, and warning vessels to take care.

Last week, South Korea’s Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said the North could test-fire new intermediate range ballistic missiles as early as this month after the country claimed to have staged solid-fuel engine tests for a new type of IRBM in November, the Yonhap New Agency reported.

An IRBM, which has a range of up to 5,500 kilometers, would place the United States territory of Guam within range if fired from Pyongyang, according to Yonhap.

North Korea’s last missile test was of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, which it fired into the East Sea on 18 December.

The apparent test comes days after North Korea conducted a series of rare live-fire drills near the maritime border with the South, prompting counter-exercises and evacuation orders for some South Korean border islands.

Leader Kim Jong Un also earlier this week branded Seoul his “principal enemy” and warned he would not hesitate to annihilate the South, as he toured major weapons factories.

“The historic time has come at last when we should define as a state most hostile toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea the entity called the Republic of Korea (South Korea),” Kim was reported Wednesday as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency