SEOUL/TOKYO: North Korea fired an apparent ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan from an inland area around 8:10 a.m. Wednesday (11:10 p.m. Tuesday GMT), the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the South Korean military said.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, speaking to reporters the same day, also pointed to the possibility that the projectile was a ballistic missile, saying, “If (the projectile traveled) in an ordinary ballistic trajectory, it is estimated to have flown some 500 kilometers and dropped outside the exclusive economic zone of our country.”

South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are conducting detailed analyses on the projectile.

Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio told reporters at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo that the latest projectile launch was “very regrettable,” noting that it came on top of repeated missile firings by North Korea last year.

Kishida instructed government workers to make full efforts to collect and analyze related information and share it with people in Japan swiftly.

In a press conference in Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that no damage on vessels or aircraft has been confirmed. At the same time, he said that North Korea’s repeated missile launches threaten the peace and security of Japan and the region and pose a serious challenge to the international community.

In September-October last year, North Korea carried out various missile launch experiments, intensifying the movement to strengthen its military power.

The last time North Korea launched a ballistic missile in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions was on Oct. 19, 2021, when the country fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

At a general meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea late last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his intention to continue to bolster his country’s military power. He said the destabilizing military environment in the Korean Peninsula and the trends of the international situation are urging North Korea to step up efforts to strengthen its military power without any delay.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, after its launch in January last year, reviewed the previous administration’s policy toward North Korea and said it is now pursuing a calibrated practical approach.

The U.S. side is seeking to have a dialogue with North Korea without any preconditions. But Pyongyang has not responded to the request.

JIJI Press