The North Korean military has fired a ballistic missile off its east coast, in the country's latest show of firepower.
The Japanese Coast Guard and the South Korean Military both confirmed that the launch had taken place.
It is thought that the missile landed in the Japan Sea, a stretch of water around 1,000km wide which lies beneath North Korea and Japan.
Eight days ago North Korea launched another ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast from Sunan airport in Pyongyang.
Eighteen days prior to that the hermit kingdom had fired two "new tactical guided weapons" in the city of Hamhung.
The country is in the midst of a ramping up demonstrations of its military firepower.
This year alone it has launched at least 1t ballistic missiles and in March, the country fired an intercontinental ballistic missile.
In doing so it abandoned a four-year moratorium on ICBM testing.
The North has said the weapon could strike the mainland United States, a claim which some military experts doubt.
Leader month leader Kim Jong-un promised to ramp up his country’s weapons development program “at the fastest possible speed” to deter those who “violate” the country’s “fundamental interests.”
In a speech at a military parade a fortnight ago, the dictator said his nuclear arsenal was not only tasked with preventing war through deterrence, but potentially carrying out strikes against the country's enemies.
Today's launch comes two days after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office, and on the same day the North announced a "grave national emergency" after confirming its first official Covid outbreak.
People have been told to stay indoors with a national lockdown put in place by authorities on Thursday.
North Korea said it detected an outbreak of a sub-variant of the highly transmissible Omicron version of Covid, known as BA.2, state media KCNA reported.
"There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020," the state media said.
The report said people in Pyongyang contracted the Omicron variant, without providing details on case numbers or possible sources of infection.
The country's claims that it had managed to avoid any coronavirus getting into the country prior to this point are highly doubtful.
