SEOUL, Sept 20 (Reuters) – North Korea launched a ballistic missile off its eastern coast on Sunday, its second test in roughly a week and days after Pyongyang accused the US of driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula through a series of military drills.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the test firing from the Wonsan area around 3 p.m. (0600 GMT), identifying the weapon as a ballistic missile. Japan’s defence ministry also said it appeared to be a ballistic missile.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the projectile had come down outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
South Korea’s National Security Council condemned the short-range missile launch, which follows a test on September 12. The council urged Pyongyang to immediately cease missile activity, warning that the test directly violated UN Security Council resolutions.
On Saturday, North Korea dismissed a resolution by the UN nuclear watchdog against Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
Pyongyang last week also condemned a US-led naval drill which included South Korea and Japan and which ran from August 29 to September 10 near Guam.
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of leader Kim Jong Un, on Friday blamed US-led military drills for “ever-worsening” tensions on the Korean Peninsula and vowed no change in the country’s course to strengthen its nuclear arsenal.
(Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Heejin Kim in Seoul and Junko Fujita in Tokyo; Editing by William Mallard and Michael Perry)
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