Japan's defense ministry has announced that North Korea fired a suspected long-range ballistic missile Monday morning.


According to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, a ministry official said the projectile is presumed to have been launched at a lofted angle, with the Japanese defense forces earlier estimating that it would fall at 9:37 a.m. some 250 kilometers west of Hokkaido's Okushiri Island, outside the country’s exclusive economic zone(EEZ) in the East Sea.

The news outlet reported later that the Japan Coast Guard said the missile is assumed to have dropped outside the country's EEZ at around 9:39 a.m.

Tokyo, which initially announced the launch at around 8:28 a.m., said the missile could be an intercontinental ballistic missile with a maximum altitude of over six-thousand kilometers.

After being briefed on the situation, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reportedly ordered full-fledged data collection and analysis efforts.

[Photo : YONHAP News]