North Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of South’s election

North Korea fires a suspected ballistic missile, Seoul’s military says, continuing this year’s record-breaking blitz of weapons tests with a launch just days before South Korea’s presidential election.

From hypersonic to medium-range ballistic missiles, Pyongyang test-fired a string of weaponry in January and last week launched what it claimed was a component of a “reconnaissance satellite” — although Seoul described it as another ballistic missile.

South Korea’s military says it detected a presumed “ballistic missile launched into the East Sea from the Sunan area around 8:48 a.m.”

Japan also confirmed the launch. The missile flew “at a maximum altitude of approximately 550 kilometers and a distance of approximately 300 kilometers,” Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi says.

He says the “extremely high frequency” of Pyongyang’s weapons tests this year were “a threat to the region… and are absolutely unacceptable.”