North Korea just launched ballistic missile after warning South Korea?

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said North Korea had "launched an unidentified ballistic missile" toward the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, but did not provide details, according to AFP.

The Japanese Coast Guard cited information from the country's Ministry of Defense saying that an "object, possibly a ballistic missile, was launched from North Korea." Reuters quoted information from NHK as saying that the North Korean missile appeared to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

There is no information yet on North Korea's response. The most recent missile launched by North Korea was the Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, launched on December 18, 2023.

In a recent interview with Yonhap, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said that North Korea could test-fire a solid-fuel medium-range ballistic missile as early as this month and could launch a long-range missile at a normal angle.

South Korea detected the new missile launch from North Korea days after Pyongyang conducted a series of rare live-fire drills near the inter-Korean sea border, prompting Seoul to conduct a counter-drill and order the evacuation of civilians on some of its frontline islands.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un also called Seoul Pyongyang's "main enemy" earlier this week and warned he would not hesitate to destroy South Korea if threatened.

Relations between North Korea and South Korea are at a low point, after Mr Kim enshrined North Korea's status as a nuclear state in the constitution and test-fired several advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to AFP.