North Korea fires ballistic missile into sea, says Seoul

North Korea on Wednesday launched a ballistic missile, which flew for some 60 km before falling into the Sea of Japan, the South Korean military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul confirmed that the missile was launched from Sinpo, South Hamgyong province, eastern North Korea, at 6.40 local time, Efe news reported.

They added that the launch was made from land and not from the sea, ruling out the possibility that it was a ballistic missile launched from a submarine (SLBM), as Pyongyang has launched before from the sea off the coast of Sinpo, where its main centre of development for these projectiles is located.

Seoul and Washington are currently analyzing both the missile type and the possible range of the missile launched by Pyongyang, the Yonhap news agency reported, adding that it was most likely a KN-15 medium range ballistic missile.

This latest launch comes just ahead of US President Donald Trump receiving his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Florida for a meeting which will have North Korea as one of the main topics.

Trump has called on Beijing, Pyongyang's closest ally, to exert more pressure on Kim Jong-un's regime to abandon the development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

On March 6, the Pyongyang regime launched four medium-range ballistic missiles, three of which landed in Japan's Special Economic Zone, just 200 km off the archipelago's shores, and two other missile tests since then apparently failed.

--IANS

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