This morning, North Korea launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, the South Korean military announced, on the day of a visit to Seoul by the head of American diplomacy, Anthony Blinken.
"North Korea launched a ballistic missile towards the East Sea," the South Korean military's joint headquarters said.
It is North Korea's first missile launch this year.
The latest launches, a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles, were on November 6, hours before the US presidential election.
A week before that launch, North Korea tested its new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, the most advanced in its arsenal.
Japan's defense ministry said it had detected a missile launch from North Korea.
It happened on the day when Blinken embarks on a farewell tour of South Korea and Japan before the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House.
The launch of the rocket comes at a time when South Korea is immersed in one of the worst political crises in its history, after the failed declaration of a state of emergency by President Jun Suk Jeol, who was then removed and threatened with arrest.
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