The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said that North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Tuesday morning. 

According to the JCS, the South Korean military detected a missile, presumed to be intermediate-range, which was fired from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea at 6:53 a.m.

The JCS reported that the missile flew for less than ten minutes, traveling 600 kilometers in the direction of Alseom, an uninhabited island off the North’s east coast, before falling into the East Sea.

The South Korean military suspects the North carried out a hypersonic missile test. 

This follows reports from the North on March 20 that it successfully tested a solid-fuel engine for its new intermediate-range hypersonic missile, and claims from Pyongyang that the missile it fired on January 14 was a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile carrying a hypersonic warhead.

The launch comes 15 days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised a live-fire drill of super-large multiple rocket launchers. 

The military has beefed up surveillance and is maintaining a full readiness posture while closely sharing information regarding the North’s ballistic missile with the United States and Japan.

[Photo : YONHAP News]