SEOUL: North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan early Friday morning, its eighth round of ballistic missile launches since late September, the South Korean military said.

The missile is believed to have fallen outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to Japan’s Defense Ministry. It was fired around 1:49 a.m. (4:49 p.m. Thursday GMT) from Pyongyang’s Sunan area, the South Korean military said. No damage to aircraft or ships has been reported.

It was the 27th time Pyongyang has fired missiles this year. On Wednesday, North Korea launched long-range strategic cruise missiles that it said were deployed for tactical nuclear weapons operations.

According to the Japanese ministry, Friday’s missile traveled about 650 kilometers at a maximum altitude of about 50 kilometers and may have flown on an irregular trajectory, which makes it difficult for the missile to be intercepted.

The South Korean military said the missile is estimated to have traveled some 700 kilometers at a maximum altitude of some 50 kilometers and at a top speed of about Mach 6.

North Korea “is escalating its provocations persistently and unilaterally,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters in Tokyo.

He said that the missile launch violates U.N. Security Council resolutions and that Tokyo made a strong protest to Pyongyang via embassy channels in Beijing.

Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio instructed officials to collect and analyze relevant information.

According to the South Korean military, some 10 North Korean military planes came close to a no-fly zone set near the military demarcation line with South Korea between around 10:30 p.m. Thursday and 12:20 a.m. Friday. The South Korean military scrambled fighter jets.

North Korea also fired about 170 artillery shots from eastern and western coasts in the south toward the Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean sea border, early Friday morning.

The South Korean presidential office said that the artillery shots violate a 2018 inter-Korean military pact aimed at avoiding an armed clash and are a hostile act that heightens tensions.

A spokesman for the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said Friday that the country took “strong military countermeasures” in response to South Korea’s artillery fire that lasted for over 10 hours near the North Korean army’s forward defense area, according to Pyongyang’s state media.

North Korea has claimed that its recent missile launches were tactical nuclear weapons drills. Leader Kim Jong Un has said that he has nothing to talk with enemies and feels no need to do so. He also has said North Korea needs to send a clearer signal to enemies.

Japan, the United States and South Korea are increasingly wary of North Korea’s possible seventh nuclear test.

JIJI Press