South Korea mulls test-firing of ballistic missile

South Korea's military is considering test-firing a ballistic missile with a range of 800 km, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Friday.

A senior official at the JCS said during the parliamentary audit of government offices that the military was mulling the test-firing of the 800-km ballistic missile southward into international waters south of the Suyan rock, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Suyan rock is an isolated underwater reef within the overlapping area of exclusive economic zones between China and South Korea.

It marked the first time that the South Korean military disclosed plan to test-fire a medium-range ballistic missile, indicating the military came almost closer to the completion of the missile development.

The military successfully test-fired a ballistic missile with a range of 500 km, named Hyunmoo-2B, on June 3.

The development of the ballistic missile came after South Korea and the US revised missile guidelines to expand the range of the South Korean military's ballistic missiles in October 2012.