North Korea has fired ballistic missile, say reports in South Korea

North Korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Wednesday, citing South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff.

The missile flew to the east and the South Korean military was analysing details of the launch with the US, South Korea’s joint chiefs said, according to the report.

US officials confirmed the report to Reuters.

The report provided no further details, but came shortly after Reuters reported that US government experts believed North Korea was poised to conduct a new missile test, in what would be its first launch since it fired a missile over Japan in mid-September. 

One of the US government sources, who did not want to be identified, said the United States had evidence that Japanese reports about the monitoring of signals suggesting North Korea was preparing a new missile test were accurate. 

Both sources said US government experts believed a new test could occur “within days”. 

The US officials who spoke to Reuters declined to say what type of missile they thought North Korea might test, but noted that Pyongyang had been working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the US and had already tested intercontinental ballistic missiles.