North Korea launches long-range ballistic missile

North Korea fires ballistic missile towards Sea of Japan, amid rising tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

"North Korea fired an unidentified long-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement this morning. The East Sea is the Korean name for the Sea of Japan, an area located east of the Korean Peninsula.

The Japanese Coast Guard issued a similar statement, saying the missile landed about 550 kilometers from the Korean peninsula, outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

North Korea has not commented on the information.

North Korean ballistic missile launched in March 2021. Photo: KCNA

This is North Korea's 12th missile launch this year, carried out less than a month after Pyongyang launched two ballistic missiles simultaneously from the Sunan area.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula and surrounding areas have been escalating recently. South Korea has held large-scale military exercises with the US and Japan, and North Korea has responded by conducting multiple missile and new-generation weapons tests.

North Korea's state news agency KCNA on July 10 quoted a statement from the North Korean Defense Ministry saying Washington had "stepped up its spying activities beyond wartime levels" and conducted "provocative flights" against Pyongyang for eight consecutive days.

"A US reconnaissance aircraft has repeatedly violated North Korean airspace in the East Sea. There is no guarantee that a shocking incident like the US Air Force's strategic reconnaissance aircraft being shot down in the East Sea will not happen again," the statement said.

North Korea, South Korea and surrounding areas. Graphic: CSIS

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, accused US reconnaissance aircraft of twice violating the eastern airspace of North Korea on July 10 and declared that Pyongyang "will take resolute action if the US military crosses the maritime demarcation line".

US B-52 strategic bombers last month participated in military exercises with South Korea, in a show of force after North Korea's failed satellite launch in late May.

Vu Anh (According to Reuters )

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