Minutes earlier, it was announced that North Korea had fired an unspecified ballistic missile into the sea, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the country’s military as saying.
The agency noted that the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff reported the launch of the projectile over the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office tweeted that “North Korea fired what appears to be a ballistic missile.”
North Korea continued in 2023 the weapons testing frenzy begun the previous year and claims to have tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles and two nuclear-capable underwater drones.
On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attended a meeting of the Central Military Commission to discuss ways to “deal with the escalating moves by the US imperialists and South Korea’s treacherous puppets to launch a war of aggression.” , said the official agency KCNA.
Kim ordered the country’s deterrence capabilities to be strengthened at “faster speed” and with a “more practical and offensive” approach.
Parallel to the promotion of the arms tests of the hermetic communist country, the United States and South Korea increased military maneuvers in the area, considered by Pyongyang a test for an eventual invasion.
North Korea has criticized the recent series of joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea as an escalation of tension.