North Korea fires second ballistic missile in less than week

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, marking the second such launch in less than a week in an apparent protest against an upcoming combined military exercise between the South and the United States, Yonhap reported.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the missile launched from the Wonsan area on the east coast at around 6 a.m.

The missile flew more than 700 kilometers, with a detailed analysis on its specifications under way by South Korean and U.S. authorities, according to the JCS.

While the military has yet to specify the type or range of the missile, the range it provided suggests the launch likely involved a short-range missile, which typically flies 300 to 1,000 km.

North Korea has the KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles, known as the North Korean version of Russia's Iskander that has a maximum range of 700-800km.

The latest launch came six days after the North fired what the South's military has identified as a short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Thursday.

The recent missile launches came as South Korea and the U.S. are set to begin their key annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise next week.

Pyongyang has strongly denounced the allies' drills as war rehearsals and conducted its own weapons tests around the training period in a show of protest.

Stabil.Az