North Korea fires missile, minister to visit Russia as tensions rise
By Ju-min Park and Makiko Yamazaki
SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired an apparent intermediate-range missile into the sea on Sunday, South Korea and Japan said, as tensions run high after Pyongyang's recent launches of an intercontinental ballistic missile and its first military spy satellite.
North Korea has stepped up pressure on Seoul in recent weeks, declaring it the «principal enemy», saying the North will never reunite with the South and vowing to enhance its ability to deliver a nuclear strike on the U.S. and America's allies in the Pacific.
Sunday's missile, launched from the area of Pyongyang around 2:55 p.m. (0555 GMT), flew about 1,000 km (600 miles) off the country's east coast, South Korea's military said in a statement, adding that Seoul was running an analysis on the missile in coordination with the United States and Japan.
The maximum altitude was at least 50 km (30 miles), and the missile appeared to fall outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, Japan's defence ministry said, criticising the launch as a violation of United Nations resolutions.
In November, North Korea said it successfully tested solid-fuel engines designed for intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
In December it said it had tested its newest intercontinental ballistic missile to gauge the war readiness of its nuclear force against what it called mounting U.S. hostility, as Washington and its allies began operating a real-time missile data-sharing system.
North Korean soldiers brought heavy weapons back to the Demilitarized Zone around the North-South border and restored guard posts that the two countries had demolished, after Seoul suspended part of a 2018 military accord between the two Koreas in a protest over Pyongyang's launch of
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