North Korea fires suspected ballistic missile, its ninth weapon launch of the year

North Korea on Saturday fired a suspected ballistic missile into the sea, according to its neighbors’ militaries, apparently extending its streak of weapons tests this year amid a prolonged freeze in nuclear negotiations with the United States.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected a single launch of a presumed ballistic missile from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang toward the country’s eastern waters, but it didn’t immediately say how far the weapon flew.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said the missile likely landed outside the country’s exclusive economic zone, and that there were no immediate reports of damages to vessels. He said early assessments suggest the missile flew about 180 miles eastward at a maximum altitude of 340 miles before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.