North Korea launches another ballistic missile
North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the sea on Friday, Yonhap news agency quoted the South Korean military as saying.
This new ballistic test comes the day after Pyongyang announced that it had launched two long-range strategic cruise missiles on Wednesday, in a test personally supervised by leader Kim Jong Un.
Pyongyang described its recent missile tests as a tactical nuclear exercise simulating the control of airports and military facilities in South Korea.
And Yonhap quoted the South Korean Chief of Staff as saying that it detected the launch of the missile from the Sunan region of Pyongyang in the early hours of Friday morning.
The Chief of Staff did not give other details about the missile, noting on the other hand that "our army maintains a state of full readiness in close cooperation with the United States."
About two hours before the ballistic missile launch was detected, Yonhap reported, quoting the Chief of Staff, that about 12 North Korean warplanes had flown close to the border with South Korea, prompting Seoul to send fighters to intercept them, including F-35A fighters.
This is the second incident between the two countries within one week in which warplanes are involved.
These developments come amid escalating military tensions on the peninsula following a series of weapons tests conducted by Pyongyang.
And the Yonhap news agency quoted the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea that 10 fighters were detected flying at a distance of 25 km north of the inter-Korean border, between 22:30 Thursday night and 00:20 am Friday local time, bypassing the line that activates automatically in response from the South.
Seoul has sent military aircraft, including F-35A fighters, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Yonhap reported.
For its part, North Korea on Friday (local time) accused Seoul of carrying out a "provocative act" near their common border and said the South Korean army was "raising military tension," state media reported.
A North Korean military spokesman said in a statement that the South Korean army fired "artillery fire for about ten hours near the advanced defense zone of the 5th Corps of the Korean People's Army."
He added that the North Korean military had "taken strong military countermeasures" in response to the "provocative action."
According to the official media agency in Pyongyang, the Korean People's Army "issuing a stern warning to the South Korean army, which is raising military tension in the front-line area with a reckless act."
In Washington, the US State Department condemned North Korea's new ballistic missile test.
"This test, along with others that took place over the past month, violates many UN Security Council resolutions" and "threatens peace and stability in the region," a ministry spokesman said.
The US State Department spokesman expressed his regret that North Korea "refuses to respond" to the offers of dialogue sent by the United States.
Earlier this week, Kim rejected the idea of resuming talks on banned weapons programmes, saying his country "doesn't feel the need to do so".
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