North Korea fired an unidentified projectile that flew in an eastward path and could be its first ballistic missile launch since it conducted a record barrage of tests in January.
South Korea’s military said its neighbor fired an unidentified projectile that flew eastward on Sunday morning. Japan’s Coast Guard said North Korea may have fired a ballistic missile and that the projectile had landed.
Further details were not immediately available. Kim Jong Un’s regime last fired a ballistic missile in late January, when it set off its biggest series of rocket tests since he took power a decade ago.
Its last test before the Sunday launch was when it fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile, for the first time since 2017. The missile reached an altitude of up to 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and had a flight distance of about 800 kilometers (497 miles), Japan and South Korea said.
North Korea often times its provocations for political purposes. The latest launch comes less than two weeks before South Korea holds a presidential election and as the Biden administration is tied up with one of its greatest international challenges with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
