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Today (the 5th), four days before the presidential election, North Korea fired another ballistic missile into the East Sea.

It's already the 9th this year.

Expectations that it would not provoke during China's biggest political event were also wrong.



Reporter Bae Jun-woo reports.



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At around 8:48 am today, North Korea fired a ballistic missile from the Pyongyang Sunan Airfield.



The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was detected at a maximum altitude of 560 km and a flight distance of 270 km.



Both altitude and distance are similar to the semi-medium-range ballistic missile projectiles claimed to have been test-launched for satellite development on the 27th of last month.



It is already the ninth North Korean provocation this year.



In particular, this test launch has overshadowed expectations that North Korea would refrain from provocations during the 'two sessions', China's largest political event that started yesterday.



In the meantime, China has been claiming to be behind North Korea despite pressure from the international community.



Therefore, weight is placed on the fact that this launch is a message to South Korea and the United States.



Four days before the presidential election, the plan is to put a burden on the next government and steal the nerves of the United States, which is focusing on Russia due to the Ukraine crisis.



For this reason, there are concerns that North Korea may launch long-range missile tests, such as the Red Line ICBM, by raising the level of provocations according to the scheduled timetable until Kim Il-sung's birthday next month.



[Shin Jong-woo / Special Research Fellow, Korea Defense Security Forum: (Last January) North Korea launched a medium-range ballistic missile called 'Hwasong 12'. The

situation.]



The Blue House held an emergency meeting of the National Security Council Standing Committee and condemned North Korea's missile test launch, arguing that it was in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.



(Video editing: Jeong Seong-Hoon, CG: Lee Jong-Jeong·Lim Chan-Hyeok)