North Korea Fires Suspected Ballistic Missile Into Sea, Ninth Weapons Test Since January

Pyongyang has carried out seven weapons tests in January, including its most powerful missile since 2017. Pyongyang said on Monday it had carried out a test of "great significance".

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New Delhi: South Korean military said that Noth Korea fired at least one "unidentified projectile" on Saturday making it the ninth suspected weapons test this year of the nuclear-armed country, reported AFP. 

"North Korea fired an unidentified projectile eastward," Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, without giving further details.

According to the Associated Press, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected a single launch of a presumed ballistic missile from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang toward the country's eastern waters. It didn't immediately inform how far the weapon flew.

Japan's Defense Ministry also assessed the weapon as possibly ballistic.

Pyongyang carried out seven weapons tests in January, including its most powerful missile since 2017. Pyongyang said on Monday it had carried out a test of "great significance" towards developing a military observation satellite, a day after Seoul said it had detected a ballistic missile launch.

North Korea & U.S.

Analysts had widely predicted Pyongyang would seek to capitalise on the United States' distraction over Russia's invasion of Ukraine with more tests.

Kim Jong Un had developed a bond with the then-president Donald Trump after a spate of provocative launches. However, diplomacy has declined ever since, and despite biting international sanctions, Pyongyang has doubled down on military development.

Trump's successor Joe Biden, the United States has repeatedly declared its willingness to meet North Korean representatives - an offer Pyongyang has dismissed.

According to AFP, North Korea last month accused the United States of being the "root cause of the Ukraine crisis" saying in a statement on its foreign ministry's website that Washington "meddled" in the internal affairs of other countries when it suited them but condemned legitimate "self-defensive measures".

Kim Il Sung 110th birth anniversary

North Korea is preparing to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the birth of late founder Kim Il Sung in April, which experts say Pyongyang could use as an opportunity to carry out a major weapons test. Recent satellite images analysed by specialist website 38 North suggest that the country may be preparing a military parade to showcase its weapons to mark the key anniversary.

Pyongyang's latest testing comes at a delicate time in the region, as South Korea gears up to elect its next president on Wednesday. One of the front runners is a former prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party has threatened a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear-armed neighbour if needed.