North Korea fires ballistic missile towards sea: South Korea

North Korea on Saturday fired a ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, Al Jazeera reported.

The move by North Korea comes ahead of the upcoming US-South Korea joint drills in Washington next week.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff while referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan, said: "North Korea fires an unidentified ballistic missile into [the] East Sea."

Japan's Coast Guard also said that North Korea fired what could be a ballistic missile, Al Jazeera reported.

The launch came a day after North Korea's Foreign Ministry threatened to take "unprecedentedly" strong action against South Korea after it announced the planned military exercises.

North Korea in December launched two medium-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, Yonhap news agency has said citing the South Korean military.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that it detected the launches from the Tongchang-RI area, North Pyongan Province between 11:13 am and 12:05 pm (local time).

According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the missiles were fired at steep angles and flew around 500 kilometres.

The JCS said that the intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States have been carrying out an analysis for other details with regards to North Korea's recent missile activities.

( With inputs from ANI )

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