North Korea launches a ballistic missile: South Korean military

South Korea’s military said on Wednesday that North Korea fired a ballistic missile off its east coast, but no further details, such as the projectile’s flight range, were immediately available.

The launch is the latest in a record year of missile testing by the North, which included an ICBM test last week, and comes as fears grow that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.

On Monday, North Korea claimed that its recent missile launches were simulated strikes on South Korea and the United States as the two countries conducted a “dangerous war drill,” while the South claimed that it had recovered parts of a North Korean missile near its coast.

North Korea test-fired multiple missiles, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and hundreds of artillery shells into the sea last week, while South Korea and the US conducted six-day air drills that ended on Saturday.

The military of the North called the “Vigilant Storm” exercises a “open provocation aimed at intentionally escalating tensions” and “a dangerous war drill of very high aggressive nature.”

The North’s army said it staged attacks on air bases and aircraft, as well as a major South Korean city, in order to “smash the enemies’ persistent war hysteria.”

The barrage of missile launches was the most in a single day in North Korea’s history, and it came amid a record year of missile testing by the nuclear-armed country.