North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile on Sunday, the Japanese coast guard and South Korean military said, while Pyongyang condemned the U.S.-led military show of force as “a preview of nuclear war.”
According to the South Korean General Staff, the missile was fired into the sea off the east coast of North Korea.
About 20 minutes after the first report of the launch, the Japanese coast guard said the missile had already crashed.
As broadcaster NTV reported, it appeared to have been outside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Further details were initially not known. A missile carrying a Malligyong-1 spy satellite is fired, the North Korean government claims, from a location indicated as North Gyeongsang Province in North Korea in this handout image obtained by Portal on November 21, 2023 (Source: KCNA VIA Portal)
The launch came after warnings from officials in Seoul and Tokyo that nuclear-armed North Korea was preparing to test-fire a missile this month, including one of its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
All North Korean ballistic missile activities are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, although Pyongyang defends them as its sovereign right to self-defense. Advertising
Criticism of the USA and Japan
Less than half an hour after the launch, North Korean state media released a defense ministry statement criticizing “military thugs” in the United States and South Korea for stoking tensions through exercises, shows of force and nuclear war planning.
The statement from an unnamed ministry spokesman referred to the arrival of the US nuclear submarine USS Missouri in the South Korean port city of Busan on Sunday.
“The armed forces of the DPRK will thoroughly neutralize the attempt by the United States and its vassals to launch a nuclear war, thereby reliably ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said, using the initials of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea .
The spokesman also criticized South Korea and the United States holding their second Nuclear Advisory Group meeting in Washington on Friday as part of allies' efforts to streamline war planning and step up shows of military force as a warning to North Korea.