North Korea May Have Fired Ballistic Missile, Japan Coast Guard Says

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea appears to have fired at least one ballistic missile, Japan's Defense Ministry said Thursday, in what may be its first such launch in nearly a year.

The projectile landed in waters between North Korea and Japan, the ministry said in a statement, adding that it didn’t land in Japan’s exclusive economic zone extending at least 200 nautical miles from shore. Japanese broadcaster FNN said North Korea appeared to have fired two missiles, citing defense officials.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff separately said North Korea fired an unidentified projectile into waters separating the Korean Peninsula from Japan, without giving further details. Japan’s Coast Guard in a notice earlier Thursday warned ships to be wary of any projectiles.

In the intermediate aftermath of a launch more than a year ago, Japan initially reported two missiles had been fired when it turned out to be a single missile with two stages.

If confirmed the launch would be the first North Korean ballistic missile fired during the presidency of Joe Biden, serving as a reminder that Kim Jong Un’s nuclear arsenal remains among the U.S.’s biggest foreign policy challenges despite former President Donald Trump’s unprecedented face-to-face summits with the North Korean leader. Although Kim made a vague commitment in 2018 to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he has continued to advance his nuclear weapons program.

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The launch comes shortly after North Korea fired two cruise missiles on Sunday from South Pyongan province that flew over the sea between the peninsula and China. That came days after U.S. officials led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken huddled with South Korean counterparts in Seoul as part of Biden’s effort to craft a strategy for rolling back North Korea’s nuclear program.

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