South Korean officials say North Korea has fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) designed to hit targets on the other side of the world.
The ICBM launch is Pyongyang’s seventh this year, and comes amid fears it may soon test a nuclear weapon.
It comes a day after the two Koreas fired missiles to escalate tensions.
The exchange marked the highest number of missiles fired by the North in a single day.
North Korea’s multiple tests come as the US and South Korea are conducting their largest-ever joint air drills, which Pyongyang has criticized as “aggressive and provocative”.
North Korea fired a long-range missile at around 07:40 local time (23:40 GMT) on Thursday, according to a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. A source confirmed with JEE News that it was ICBM.
It flew about 760 km (472 mi) and reached an altitude of about 1,920 km.
But it appears to have failed mid-flight, Yonhap news agency quoted sources as saying.
Pyongyang also fired two short-range ballistic missiles.
The launches prompted the Japanese government to issue a rare emergency alert to residents in some of its northern regions on Thursday morning, telling them to stay indoors.
Tokyo initially said the missile had passed over Japan, but Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada later said it “did not cross the Japanese peninsula, but disappeared over the Sea of ​​Japan”.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later condemned North Korea’s “repeated missile launches” as an “outrage”.
The US said the launch showed that North Korea’s missile program poses threats to neighbors and international peace and security.
“Our commitments to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remain ironclad,” a State Department spokesman said.
Meanwhile, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said during a phone call Thursday that the launches were “deplorable, immoral.”
