Photo : KCNA / Yonhap News
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said that North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Sunday morning.
The launch marked North Korea’s first ballistic missile test this year and came about two months after its previous launch of a short-range ballistic missile on November 7 last year.
The missile launch took place on the same day President Lee Jae Myung is set to depart for China for a four-day state visit at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
With a South Korea–China summit scheduled for Monday, where the issue of North Korea’s denuclearization is expected to be discussed, the launch is seen as an attempt by Pyongyang to assert its presence ahead of the talks.
The launch also came shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, known for his anti-American stance, had been ousted through a military operation.