The missile was launched from the Wonsan area at around 6.30 am on Saturday, the South Korean military said in a statement. It did not elaborate on how far the missile flew.
Japan’s coast guard, in an emailed statement citing the Japanese defence ministry, said the object may have been a ballistic missile and appeared to have come down, warning ships to take precautions.
South Korea’s military said it has raised its monitoring of any further missile tests and will share intelligence with the US and Japan.
The South Korean presidential office’s national security council convened an emergency meeting on Saturday to assess the situation after the missile launch, the office said in a statement.
The launch came after Pyongyang’s Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement on Friday that dismissed Seoul’s demand for an apology for what it said were DPRK mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarised Zone, a heavily fortified area between the two Koreas.
South Korea said this week that DPRK mines caused the blast that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission inside the 4-km-wide border that stretches across the Korean Peninsula.
