North Korea’s recent missile launch may be a test of upgraded exports to Russia, observers say, as the war in Ukraine gives Pyongyang opportunities to improve its weapons.
At about 6am on Wednesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) detected a missile launched from the North’s southeastern port city of Wonsan. It flew roughly 700km (435 miles) eastward before falling into the Sea of Japan, or East Sea.
The JCS conspicuously did not specify the missile’s launch angle or whether it should be classified as short- or long-range. Instead, it said South Korean, US and Japanese authorities had been tracking the launch from its early stages.
A South Korean military official said further analysis was needed to determine its type.
The JCS said the military was “closely monitoring various developments in North Korea under a robust South Korea-US combined defence posture”. It stressed that South Korea was maintaining the capabilities and readiness to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation.
The latest launch came six days after North Korea fired what the South Korean military identified as a short-range ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan.