North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile early Sunday, adding to the barrage launched a day earlier, as Kim Jong Un leads a major political meeting to set policy for 2023.
The suspected missile has likely already fallen, Japan’s Coast Guard said early Sunday. The launch comes after North Korea also fired at least three missiles Saturday from an area south of Pyongyang in North Hwanghae province toward waters off its east coast.
Officials from Japan, the U.S. and South Korea spoke in a phone call on Saturday, according to the Japanese foreign ministry. The three parties strongly condemned North Korea’s launch of a record number of ballistic missiles this year including the ones on Saturday, and agreed the unprecedented frequency poses a grave and imminent threat to the security of the region as well as a clear and serious challenge to the international community.
The meeting is expected to finish this weekend. On Saturday, the state’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim has been analyzing “the recent subjective and objective situation facing our revolution and the condition and circumstances to be foreseen in the future.”