South Korea’s military says North fires ballistic missile

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, as the United States and South Korea warned any nuclear attack would lead to the end of Pyongyang’s regime.

“Our military detected a short-range ballistic missile launched from the Pyongyang area towards the East Sea at around 22:38 on Sunday,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

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Japan’s defence ministry also said North Korea launched “what appears to be a ballistic missile”, with its coastguard adding that it seemed to have already fallen.

The two allies held their second session of the Nuclear Consultative Group in Washington on Friday, where they discussed nuclear deterrence in the event of conflict with the North.

A spokesman for the North’s defence ministry on Sunday slammed the allies’ plans to expand a key annual joint military drill next year to include a nuclear operation drill and warned of “a pre-emptive and deadly counteraction”.

“This is an open declaration on nuclear confrontation to make the use of nuclear weapons against the DPRK a fait accompli,” the statement carried by the KCNA news agency said, using the official acronym for North Korea.

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And last month Pyongyang successfully put a military spy satellite into orbit. It has since claimed its eye in the sky was already providing images of major US and South Korean military sites.