SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile in a show of army would possibly Thursday simply hours earlier than the leaders of South Korea and Japan had been to fulfill at a Tokyo summit anticipated to be overshadowed by North Korean nuclear threats.

The launch, the North’s first ICBM take a look at in a month and third weapons testing this week, additionally comes as South Korean and U.S. troops proceed joint army workouts that Pyongyang considers a rehearsal to invade.

South Korea’s army stated the North Korean ICBM flew towards the Korean Peninsula’s japanese waters after being launched from North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, round 7:10 a.m. The assertion stated South Korea’s army is sustaining readiness in shut coordination with the USA.

The Sunan neighborhood is the positioning of Pyongyang’s worldwide airport and has emerged as a significant testing website the place the North launched most of its ICBMs lately, all flown on a excessive angle to keep away from the territory of neighbors.

Japanese Protection Minister Yasukazu Hamada stated the missile probably landed within the waters outdoors Japan’s unique financial zone after about an hour-long flight. The touchdown website is about 250 kilometers (155 miles) off the western island of Oshimaoshima, which is near the place different North Korean ICBMs fell in current months after test-flights.

Thursday’s launch got here hours earlier than South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was to journey to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida aimed toward mending frayed ties and solidifying a trilateral safety cooperation with the USA to counter North Korean threats.

After conducting a file variety of missile exams final yr, North Korea has prolonged its testing actions this yr, together with the Feb. 18 launch of its Hwasong-15 ICBM that’s designed to strike the U.S. mainland. After that ICBM launch, North Korea stated the take a look at was meant to additional bolster its “deadly” nuclear assault capability in opposition to its rivals.

The North’s ongoing aggressive run of weapons exams has been broadly anticipated; chief Kim Jong Un final week ordered his army to be able to repel what he known as “frantic battle preparations strikes” by his nation’s rivals, referring to giant ongoing drills between the U.S. and South Korea.

Pyongyang earlier this week fired cruise missiles from a submarine and despatched short-range ballistic missiles throughout its territory into its japanese sea. Final week, North Korea additionally fired a minimum of six short-range ballistic missiles from a western coastal space in an train supervised by Kim Jong Un, an occasion state media described as a simulated assault on an unspecified South Korean airfield.

The U.S.-South Korean drills that started Monday and are scheduled to proceed till March 23 embody laptop simulations and live-fire discipline workouts.

Final yr Pyongyang test-fired greater than 70 missiles, together with nuclear-capable ones that focus on South Korea, Japan and the U.S. mainland. North Korea stated a lot of these exams had been a warning over earlier South Korean-U.S. army drills.

The South Korea-Japan summit was organized after Yoon’s authorities final week took a significant step towards repairing bilateral ties strained by Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

His plan — to make use of native funds to compensate Koreans pressured into industrial slave labor through the colonial rule with out contributions from Japanese corporations that employed them — has met fierce home opposition however displays Yoon’s resolve to enhance ties with Japan and enhance Seoul-Tokyo-Washington safety cooperation.

Underneath Kishida, Tokyo has additionally made a significant break from its post-World Struggle II precept of self-defense solely, adopting a brand new nationwide safety technique in December that features the targets of buying preemptive strike capabilities and cruise missiles to counter rising threats from North Korea, China and Russia.

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Related Press author Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.