The projectile was fired at the sea east of the Korean Peninsula shortly after 7 a.m., according to the South Korean military.
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North Korea has launched a “suspected ballistic missile” towards the sea, the South Korean army announced Tuesday, January 11, less than a week after Pyongyang claimed to have tested a hypersonic missile. The projectile was fired at the sea east of the Korean Peninsula shortly after 7 a.m. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has confirmed that“an object which could be a ballistic missile” was started by North Korea.
A few hours before the firing, six countries (the United States, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Albania) had urged North Korea to end its “destabilizing actions” ahead of a closed meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The projectile was fired as the latter was meeting to discuss the previous week’s test of what Pyongyang described as a hypersonic missile.
According to experts, Pyongyang may have intentionally coincided its shooting with the UN meeting. “The launch has political and military motivations”Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at the Korea National Strategy Research Institute, told AFP. “North Korea continues to try to diversify its nuclear arsenal, but it planned the firing on the day of the UN Security Council meeting to maximize its political impact.”