North Korea launched a ballistic missile over the sea towards the east of the Korean Peninsula in the early hours of Sunday morning - the first day of the new year - local time, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that Pyongyang fired a short-range ballistic missile at around 02:50 Sunday morning in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, noting that the launch was carried out from the Yongseong district of the North Korean capital.
The Yonhap news agency quoted the South Korean military as saying that the missile flew a distance of about 400 kilometers before it fell into the sea.
The move comes less than 24 hours after North Korea launched 3 ballistic missiles from Chunghwa, south of Pyongyang, and traveled approximately 350 km before falling into the sea.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the latest launch did not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or territory, or to Washington's allies, but it highlights the destabilizing effect of Pyongyang's weapons programme.
This launch is the latest in an unprecedented number of missile tests conducted by North Korea in 2022, as it launched about 70 ballistic missiles, the largest number in the decade that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un spent in power.
Kim has intensified his provocations in the past few months as a show of anger at joint military exercises in the region by the United States and its allies South Korea and Japan.
The launch comes a day after South Korea announced the success of a solid-fuel space launcher test, and in the wake of the incursion of 5 North Korean drones into South Korean airspace earlier last week.