North Korea has launched a ballistic missile , the model of which has not yet been identified with certainty, into the waters of the Sea of Japan.
According to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the rocket would have reached the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), west of the island of Hokkaido. It would be an intercontinental ballistic missile, an ICBM , a Tokyo government spokesman said. Flight time was estimated at over an hour. A Japanese Defense Ministry official had previously said the missile was expected to land about 200 kilometers west of the island of Oshima, off the coast of Hokkaido.
The operation comes a few days before the start of joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea scheduled for next week and against which Pyongyang had threatened to react with an "unprecedented" response.
After an intense missile launch activity during 2022 , since the beginning of 2023 North Korea has launched only one in the early hours of the year.
(Unioneonline/F)
