North Korea Allegedly Engulfed An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, A POSSIBLY DROPPED IN Japan's EEZ

Illustration of the launch of North Korea's ICBM Hwasong-17 missile. (Source: KCNA)

JAKARTA - North Korea allegedly fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the East Sea on Friday, the South Korean military said, in clear protest at the United States' move to strengthen the protection of "extended prevention" against South Korea and Japan.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected a launch from the Sunan area in Pyongyang at 10:15 a.m. But gave no other details.

"While strengthening our monitoring and vigilance, our military maintains a full posture of readiness in close cooperation with the US," the JCS said.

The launch comes just a day after North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui warned his country would take "harder military action" if the US strengthened its security commitments to use various military capabilities, including nuclear options, to defend allies.

Shortly after Choe's statement, North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea.

North Korea's reaction follows a trilateral summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and his US and Japanese counterpart Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, respectively, on the sidelines of an annual regional meeting at Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Sunday.

Previously, Pyongyang fired an ICBM on November 3. The launch was seen as a failure, as the missile failed to fly on a normal track after the second phase of rocket separation, according to Seoul officials.

Separately, Japan's prime minister said North Korea's missiles were likely to fall into Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Sea of Japan, condemning the move as "absolutely unacceptable", citing Kyodo News.

Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno explained, Projectile "class of intercontinental ballistic missiles" flew about 1,000 kilometers in a "high" trajectory and reached an altitude of up to 6,000 km, adding the government did not issue an order to destroy it.