SEOUL/TOKYO, Sept 20 (Reuters) – North Korea launched what appeared to be a ballistic missile into the sea to the east of the Korean Peninsula on Sunday, Japan’s defence ministry said.
South Korea’s defence ministry said the rival North had fired an unidentified projectile. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said it had come down outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
A day earlier, North Korea dismissed a resolution by the U.N. nuclear watchdog against Pyongyang’s nuclear programme, in a statement read out on state media.
Pyongyang last week also condemned a U.S.-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 U.S.-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.
South Korea’s presidential office convened a National Security Council (NSC) meeting on Sunday following the reports of North Korea’s launch of short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea from the Wonsan area.
Condemning the launch, the second in about a week following a previous test on Sept. 12, the NSC urged Pyongyang to immediately cease missile activity, warning that the test directly violates United Nations Security Council resolutions.
(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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