North Korea launches ballistic missile

ALBAWABA - North Korea launched an unidentified ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.

On Thursday morning, North Korea launched a ballistic missile towards the East Sea of the Korean Peninsula, from a place near Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (South Korea).

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the army is conducting an analysis to find out the type of missile and the distance it traveled.

The launch of this missile prompted the Japanese authorities to warn residents of the northern island of Hokkaido and ask them to take cover.

Japanese authorities later withdrew the warning, saying the emergency alert system had erred in predicting the missile would land near the island. 

The South Korean military said that it was on high alert too and maintaining a state of readiness in close coordination with the U.S.

North Korea had intensified its experiments recently. It says that this comes within the framework of its protest against the expanded military exercises between Seoul and Washington, which it considers as training for a near invasion.

However, the South Korean and U.S. militaries also expanded their joint military exercises in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.

The missile's launch came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for strengthening his country's military deterrence capacity to counter, what Pyongyang described as, the "aggressive moves of the United States."