The launch event came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul for talks with South Korean allies over the North Korean nuclear threat and other issues.
North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency claimed a successful test of a new type of intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile.
The JCS said the South Korean military has heightened surveillance for additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture to share info with the U.S. and Japan.
The U.S. secretary of state aimed to show that his country stood by South Korea as it grapples with a political crisis, and as Donald J. Trump returns to power.
North Korea has fired what appears to be an intermediate range ballistic missile towards the sea to its east, South Korea's military said, in what is Pyongyang's first missile launch in two months. Japan's defence ministry said around noon local time (03:00 GMT) that the projectile had already fallen into the sea.
North Korea said Tuesday it successfully test-fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile, claiming the weapon would "reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region."
Kim Jong Un described the missile test as a crucial achievement in his goals to bolster North Korea's nuclear deterrence. Lee Sung Joon, Spokesperson of South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, downplayed the test,
Washington, a return to normalcy would come as a relief regardless of who’s in charge in Seoul. The current crisis has been a nightmare from which the Americans would hope to awaken and discover
By developing hypersonic weapons and testing them before the presidential changeover in the United States, North Korea has a significant bargaining chip to use for whenever the new Trump administration comes looking to continue their previous diplomacy with Kim Jong-un.
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said a new hypersonic missile system tested this week would help deter the country's Pacific rivals, state media reported on Tuesday (Jan 7), as Washington's top diplomat visited the region.