North Korea fired what appeared to be a medium-range ballistic missile into the sea Friday, just days after leader Kim Jong-Un ordered further nuclear warhead and missile tests, South Korea's defence ministry said. A ministry spokesman said the missile was launched from Sukchon in the country's south-west at 5:55 am (2055 GMT Thursday) and flew 800 kilometres (500 miles) into the East Sea, also called the Sea of Japan.
He did not confirm the type of missile, but South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited military sources as saying it was a Rodong missile, a scaled-up Scud variant with a maximum range of around 1,300 kilometres. Military tensions have been soaring on the divided Korean peninsula since the North carried out its fourth nuclear test on January 6, followed a month later by a long-range rocket launch that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.
The UN Security Council responded earlier this month by imposing its toughest sanctions on North Korea to date. US President Barack Obama signed an order on Wednesday implementing the UN sanctions, as well as a series of unilateral US sanctions adopted by Congress. Pyongyang, meanwhile, has maintained a daily barrage of nuclear strike threats against both Seoul and Washington, ostensibly over ongoing, large-scale South Korea-US military drills that the North sees as provocative rehearsals for invasion. To register its anger at the joint exercises, the North fired two short-range missiles into the East Sea on March 10.