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Thursday morning, according to the South Korean military and Yonhap news agency, North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the ocean.
According to the agency, Pyongyang’s latest act of defiance amid intense tensions with Seoul and Washington was the launch of a missile towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South.
According to the agency, the military of the South gave no preliminary information about the launch.
Japan officially acknowledged the launch when, at 1034 GMT, the office of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tweeted, “North Korea launched what appears to be a ballistic missile.”
Pyongyang has started the year with a flurry of weapons tests, including the launch of two intercontinental ballistic missiles and what its state media has described as underwater drones with nuclear weapons capability.
The Central Military Commission met on Monday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in attendance to discuss how to “cope with the escalating moves of the US imperialists and the south Korean puppet traitors to unleash a war of aggression,” according to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency.
Kim commanded that the nation’s deterrence capabilities be boosted “increasing speed” and in a “more practical and offensive” way.
The idea of denuclearization discussions was practically ended when North Korea declared itself a “irreversible” nuclear nation last year.
Kim gave the order to the military earlier this year to step up training in order to get ready for a “real war”.
