North Korea launches ballistic missile into Sea of Japan

South Korea military says the North Korean missile had an altitude of 4,500 kilometres and traveled a distance of 960 km over the sea between South Korea and Japan.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un visits the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Academy on its 70th anniversary, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang,

North Korea fired one ballistic missile from Pyongsong, a city in South Pyongan Province, at around 1817 GMT over the sea between South Korea and Japan, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday.

It came a week after President Donald Trump put North Korea back on a US list of countries that it says support terrorism.

Yonhap news agency cited the South Korea military as saying that the North Korean missile had an altitude of 4,500 kilometres and traveled a distance of 960 km.

Japan's Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said he thinks the missile appeared to reached an altitude of 4,000 kilometres on a lofted trajectory.

The Pentagon said that initial assessment suggests that the North Korean launch was an ICBM.

The missile was launched from Sain Ni, North Korea and travelled about 1,000 kilometres before splashing in the Sea of Japan.

"We detected a probable missile launch from North Korea. We are in the process of assessing the situation and will provide additional details when available," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters.

The Pentagon added that the missile had not posed any threat to the United States, its territories or its allies.

After firing missiles at a rate of about two or three a month since April, North Korea paused its missile launches in late September, after it fired a missile that passed over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island on September 15.

      The South responds 

Minutes after the North fired the missile, South Korea's military conducted a missile-firing test in response to the provocation, the South Korean military added.

The missile flew to the east and the South Korean military is analysing details of the launch with the United States, according to a report from South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

NHK in Japan, citing the defence ministry, reported that the missile may have landed in the water of Japan's exclusive economic zone.

The US source told Reuters no further details were immediately available.

Asahi Shimbun in Japan also reported that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile early on Wednesday.

       North's new missile tests 

Two authoritative US government sources said earlier that US government experts believed North Korea could conduct a new missile test within days, in what would be its first launch since it fired a missile over Japan in mid-September.

The US officials declined to say what type of missile they thought North Korea might test, but noted that Pyongyang had been working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States and had already tested inter-continental ballistic missiles.

US stocks pared gains after reports of the missile launch. The S&P 500 index was up half a percent in mid-afternoon.

Last week, North Korea denounced Trump's decision to re-list it as a state sponsor of terrorism, calling it a "serious provocation and violent infringement."

The designation allows the United States to impose more sanctions, though some experts said it risked inflaming tensions.

       'All options are on the table'

Trump has traded insults and threats with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and warned in his maiden speech to the UN in September that the United States would have no choice but to "totally destroy" North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies.

Washington has said repeatedly that all options are on the table in dealing with North Korea, including military ones, but that it prefers a peaceful solution by Pyongyang agreeing to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

To this end, Trump has pursued a policy of encouraging countries around the world, including North Korea's main ally and neighbour, China, to step up sanctions on Pyongyang to persuade it to give up its weapons programs.

North Korea has given no indication it is willing to re-enter dialogue on those terms.

North Korea defends its weapons programs as a necessary defence against US plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intention.