The early morning launch came just hours after Pyongyang sent another flurry of trash-bearing balloons southward, this time forcing a three-hour halt to flights in and out of South Korea's Incheon airport.
Later Wednesday, South Korea conducted live-fire drills along its disputed western sea boundary with North Korea, its first since it suspended a 2018 agreement with the North aimed at reducing front-line military tensions in early June.
The ballistic missile test appeared to be a preemptive show of force aimed at the trilateral exercise beginning later the same day between the United States and its allies, South Korea and Japan—naval maneuvers the North has previously described as rehearsals for an invasion.
This launch came amid increased cross border tension as the reclusive communist state has been sending balloons carrying garbage into South Korea.
