North Korea launches missile ahead of South Korea-Japan summit

Kim Jong Un (File image)

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, South Korea's military said on Thursday, just hours before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was due to fly to Tokyo for a rare summit.

North Korea has conducted near daily missile launches this week amid ongoing joint South Korea-U.S. military drills that Pyongyang condemns as hostile actions.

In a statement on Thursday, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North had launched at least one unknown type of ballistic missile off its east coast.

Yoon is headed to Japan for the first such summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in more than a decade, part of an effort to overcome historical, political and economic disputes in the name of better cooperating to counter North Korea and other challenges.

As part of the efforts, the two U.S. allies have agreed to share real-time tracking of North Korean missile launches, and have vowed to further deepen military cooperation.