North Korea launched a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward the Sea of Japan early Friday, South Korean military has said.
The South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff noted the projectile had been launched from Pyongyang's Sunan area at about 10:15 a.m. local time. The Joint Chiefs further stated that the missile flew about 1,000 kilometers at an altitude of 6,100 kilometers, adding it reached a top speed of about Mach 22.
Japanese officials earlier stated the missile reached a maximum altitude of 6,000 kilometers and traveled a distance of 1,000 kilometers.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has since said the suspected ICBM landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, west of the island of Hokkaido. It's believed the projectile was airborne for approximately one hour. No reports of damages have yet surfaced.
Kishida has blasted the incident, telling reporters in Thailand: "We naturally lodged a strong protest against North Korea, which has repeated its provocations with unprecedented frequency."
The Japanese prime minister is in Thailand attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada commented on Friday that "if we calculate based on the trajectory of the intercontinental ballistic missile fired by North Korea today, the range could have exceeded 15,000 kilometers, which includes US territory."
Earlier, the Japan Coast Guard issued an alert to aircraft and sea vessels, urging others to refrain from "approaching fragments should they fall, and to inform the coast guard." At the time, the Misawa Air Base also issued a precautionary seek cover order.
The launch itself comes a day after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the Sea of Japan from Wonsan, a port city located in the country's Kangwon Province.
Incidentally, the Wednesday launch also took place as North Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Choe Son Hui warned that Pyongyang would undertake a "fiercer" military action if the US continued to strengthen its "extended deterrence" commitment with allies in the region.