According to South Korean Military, North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Saturday night, local time, says Norwegian news media VG.
The firing was the sixth missile testing North Korea has conducted over the course of two weeks. It was fired in the direction of the sea, East of South Korea’s Eastern coast, reportedly a few hours after South Korea and the US had ended a joint military exercise.
Japanese authorities also detected the firing, said Reuters, stating they could not be tolerated. Japan has initiated an investigation of the missiles, including the possibility of the missiles being submarine launched.
The firing sparks already heated tensions between Japan and North Korea. Thurday 6 October, North Korea fired two missiles as a “countermeasure” to a collaborative SouthKorean-American military exercise. The exercise was initiated as a “counteraction” to North Korea firing a ballistic missile over Japanese territory on Tuesday 4 October.
The American government said it was prepared to keep defending South Korea and Japan while continuing to curb North Korea’s ability to develop its illegal weaponized programmes. It further stated to be open to negotiations with the North Korean government.
