North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, marking the second such launch in less than a week in what appears to be a protest against an upcoming joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the missile being launched from the Wonsan area on North Korea’s east coast at around 6 am, Yonhap reported.
According to the JCS, the missile flew more than 700 kilometers, while South Korean and U.S. authorities are conducting a detailed analysis of its specifications.
The military has not yet identified the type or range of the missile. However, the reported flight distance suggests that the launch likely involved a short-range missile, which typically has a range of 300 to 1,000 kilometers.
North Korea possesses KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles, known as the North Korean version of Russia’s Iskander, with a maximum range of about 700-800 kilometers.
The latest launch came six days after North Korea fired what the South Korean military identified as a short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday.
The recent missile launches came as South Korea and the United States are set to begin their key annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise next week.
Pyongyang has strongly condemned the allies’ military drills as rehearsals for war and has conducted its own weapons tests around the training period as a show of protest.