North Korea launches ‘ballistic missile’ towards Sea of Japan

Pyongyang on Monday launched an unspecified ballistic missile towards the East Sea, the South Korean military said.

“North Korea launched an unidentified ballistic missile towards the East Sea,” Yonhap news agency quoted South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying, referring to the body of water, also known as the Sea of Japan, without providing further details.

The launch of a missile believed to be ballistic is the second of its kind to be carried out by Pyongyang in 2024, after it launched on Jan. 14 a missile equipped with a hypersonic warhead.

The test comes just days after Seoul and Washington concluded their annual “Freedom Shield” exercise, which included missile interception drills and air attacks.

The number of troops involved has doubled compared to 2023.

North Korea warned the United States and South Korea that they would pay a “heavy price” for the exercises, before announcing that its leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a large-scale artillery exercise involving border units that “put the enemy’s capital within its reach.”

Since the beginning of the year, Pyongyang has designated Seoul as its “main enemy,” shut down agencies dedicated to reunification and inter-Korean dialogue, and threatened war if any violation of its territory occurs, “even if it is only 0.001 mm in size.”

The United States on Monday condemned North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile to coincide with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Korea.

These launches, like previous ballistic missile launches in recent years, violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” a State Department spokesman said.

These operations threaten North Korea’s neighbors and undermine regional security,” he stressed.

We remain committed to a diplomatic approach and call on North Korea to dialogue,” he said, while stressing that “our commitment to defending Japan and South Korea remains unwavering.