North Korea launches ballistic missile to escalate tensions

North Korea fired what appeared to be about 10 short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korea’s military said Thursday.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said North Korea had launched a ballistic missile that landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

South Korea’s military said in a statement that the suspected missiles were fired from the Sunan area near its capital, Pyongyang, at 6:14 a.m. on Thursday (2114 GMT on Wednesday) and flew about 350 kilometers (217 miles) before plunging into the sea.

South Korea is sharing North Korean missile-related information with U.S. and Japanese officials, it added in the statement.

The launch came after North Korea failed on Monday in its attempt to put a second spy satellite into orbit when a newly developed rocket engine exploded in flight.

After the failure, leader Kim Jong Un pledged never to give up space reconnaissance projects.

On Thursday, a North Korean foreign ministry official condemned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ statement that the attempted launch of another military satellite using ballistic missile technology was against U.N. Security Council resolutions.

In another launch watched by its neighbors, North Korea sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and excrement across the heavily fortified border to South Korea on Wednesday, prompting an angry response from Seoul, which said the act was base and dangerous.