North Korea fires ballistic missile hours before South Korea-Japan summit

A ballistic missile was fired by North Korea into the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula, said South Korea's military on Thursday, hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is scheduled to fly to Tokyo to attend a rare summit.

This week, North Korea has been launching missiles on a daily basis amid ongoing joint military drills between South Korea and the United States that have been condemned by Pyongyang as hostile actions.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a statement on Thursday, said that at least one ballistic missile of an unknown type has been fired by North Korea off its east coast.

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Yoon will be visiting Japan to attend a summit with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first-of-its-kind summit being held in more than a decade as part of the two governments' efforts to overcome economic, political and historical disputes in the name of better co-operation to counter different challenges.

The two US allies also agreed to provide each other with real-time tracking of missile launches by North Korea and have promised to deepen military co-operation.

Two short-range ballistic missiles were fired by North Korea on Tuesday in its first launch since the manoeuvres, the biggest in five years, started as per the South Korean military.

Two strategic cruise missiles were launched by Pyongyang on Sunday from a submarine apparently to protest against the US-South Korea exercises.

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The drills, called Freedom Shield, started on Monday and will continue for 10 days. Seoul's military, in a rare move, revealed this month that military exercises called "Teak Knife" are being staged by the two allies, which includes simulating precision strikes on important facilities in North Korea, before the Freedom Shield.

The focus of Freedom Shield exercises is on the "changing security environment" because of redoubled aggression of North Korea, the allies said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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