North Korea has launched a ballistic missile on Monday, South Korea’s military said, as the top US diplomat was meeting key officials in Seoul.
“North Korea sent unknown ballistic missile towards the East Sea,” South Korea’s military said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
Monday’s launch took place while outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting his counterpart and the South’s acting president before he heads to Japan.
The missile appeared to have fallen into the sea, the Japanese defence ministry and Japanese coast guard said in separate statements.
The ballistic missile launch is Pyongyang’s first this year. Its previous launch was in November when it test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
That was North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s first weapons test since sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.
South Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea in a show of force in response to Pyongyang’s salvo of missile launches.
North Korea also staged GPS jamming attacks on the South later in November, an operation that affected several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in the country.
South Korea has been plunged into weeks of political crisis after President Yoon Suk Seol announced a short-lived martial law decree on December 3.
North Korean state media said last week the South was in “chaos” and paralysed politically over an attempt by investigators to execute an arrest warrant for Yoon.
