Symbolic imageNorth Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of US-South Korean exercise
North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, its second test in a week. It came five days before a large US-South Korean exercise begins.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff detected the launch at around 6am local time from the Wonsan area and said the missile flew more than 700 km. Japan's defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi put the flight at about 690 km and said the missile fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone without causing damage. Seoul counted it as Pyongyang's eleventh suspected ballistic launch this year, after a short-range missile from the same area on Thursday, 6 August. Ulchi Freedom Shield runs 11 days from Monday with 18,000 South Korean troops and part of the 28,500-strong US contingent; Seoul and Washington call the drills defensive, Pyongyang a rehearsal for invasion.
Tokyo protests through Beijing
Koizumi said Japan lodged a strong protest through its embassy in Beijing and called the launch a threat to regional peace and security and a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Warning from 40 states
The United States and about 40 other states warned on Tuesday that unannounced tests of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles raise the risk of miscalculation, FAZ reports.
Other opinions
TASS covers the launch mainly as Japan's protest and flight data, without the exercise context central to FAZ, Le Monde and Al Jazeera.