North Korea launches alleged long-range ballistic missile

North Korea launched a “suspected ballistic missile” that flew over Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on social media on Wednesday.

The announcement of the Japanese ruler was made through a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

The launch comes a day after Pyongyang warned it would launch a satellite and Tokyo urged North Korea to cancel the project, coinciding with joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.

Also on Wednesday, South Korea said Pyongyang had fired a long-range missile it called a “spacecraft launch.”

The South Korean military did not elaborate in a statement, but this is likely the second attempt by North Korea to launch a spy satellite into space.

On Tuesday, North Korea informed Japan of its intention to launch the satellite in the coming days after an earlier test failed three months ago.

On May 31, a missile presented by Pyongyang as launching a military surveillance satellite crashed in the Yellow Sea shortly after takeoff, with North Korean authorities citing a technical problem.

Pyongyang explained that it intends to “oppose the dangerous military actions of the United States and its vassals.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made developing a military spy satellite a priority. Washington and Seoul, for their part, suspect that Pyongyang is developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile that uses technology similar to that of a satellite launcher.

The launch announcement coincides with large-scale maneuvers between the US and South Korea that began on Monday and will last until August 31.