North Korea launched a ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast on Wednesday, according to South Korea’s military, less than a week after pledging to develop its nuclear forces “as quickly as possible.”
The launch, the North’s 14th major weapons test this year, comes just days before South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol takes office on May 10.
The South Korean military said it detected the launch around noon in Pyongyang’s Sunan district. On March 24, North Korea claimed to have fired Hwasong-17, a “new type” of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), from Sunan.
The Coast Guard of Japan also reported that it had detected what appeared to be a ballistic missile fired from North Korea, and that the projectile had already landed.