North Korea launched one ballistic missile Tuesday toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing the Republic of Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported the ballistic missile flew around 590 km and reached an altitude of about 60 km.
The short-range missile was launched from waters east of Sinpo, a city on the North’s east coast, according to the Yonhap News Agency, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The launch was detected at 10:17 a.m., it said.
The North previously conducted an SLBM test in 2015 and 2019. The South’s military believes that it used a barge rather than a submarine during the past tests.
No casualties or damage were reported and the missiles appeared to have already splashed down, a government spokesman cited by Japan’s Kyodo news agency said.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command condemned the missile launch, calling on the North to refrain from “any further destabilizing acts.”
“While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies, we will continue to monitor the situation,” the command said in a statement posted on its website.
“The U.S. commitment to the defense of the ROK and Japan remains ironclad,” it added, referring to South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
“We are aware of the North Korean ballistic missile launch this morning into the Sea of Japan and are consulting closely with the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan, as well as other regional allies and partners. The United States condemns these actions and calls on the DPRK to refrain from any further destabilizing acts. While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or that of our allies, we will continue to monitor the situation. The U.S. commitment to the defense of the ROK and Japan remains ironclad.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the launch as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and called it “extremely regrettable.
According to Yonhap, the intelligence chiefs of the United States, South Korea and Japan are to hold talks in the South Korean capital Seoul on Tuesday, with Pyongyang’s nuclear threat also on the agenda.
North Korea, which is subject to international sanctions because of its nuclear weapons program, has repeatedly tested missiles in recent months.
Earlier, the South Korean military stated that North Korea launched an unidentified missile into the Sea of Japan, but provided no additional details.
The Japanese government cautioned that the projectile shot by North Korea may be a ballistic missile, and the Japanese Coast Guard issued cautions to ships in conjunction with the probable test.
The Japanese coast guard issued a marine safety alert to ships, although it was unclear where the weapon landed.
UN resolutions prohibit North Korea from testing ballistic missiles, which, depending on their design, can also carry a nuclear warhead.
Negotiations between North Korea and the United States have not made any progress since Kim’s failed summit with then-US president Donald Trump in Vietnam in February 2019.
(With inputs from agencies)
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