By Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok Shim
SEOUL, Aug 12 (Reuters) - North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday toward the sea off the Korean Peninsula's east coast, South Korean and Japanese authorities said, days ahead of major joint military exercises by Seoul and Washington long denounced by Pyongyang.
The missile was launched from the Wonsan area on North Korea's east coast at around 6 a.m. (2100 GMT Tuesday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, six days after North Korea fired another
ballistic missile from the same area.
The launch comes ahead of South Korean and U.S. military drills, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Shield, scheduled for August 17 to 27, aimed at countering Pyongyang's evolving nuclear and weapons capabilities.
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the launch was likely part of North Korea's existing weapons development schedule, but the timing could also have been selected to send a message ahead of the U.S.-South Korean exercises.
"Even if it was a test of a weapon under development, choosing when to conduct it requires a political decision," Hong said.
South Korean authorities said North Korea also fired a ballistic missile from Wonsan on August 6, but Pyongyang did not report that launch in state media. Hong said that test may have failed to achieve its intended objective.
North Korea has conducted a series of tests this year, including short-range ballistic missiles, artillery rockets and other tactical weapons.
Wednesday's launch was its 11th suspected ballistic missile test in 2026, according to South Korean assessments.
South Korean and Japanese defence authorities said the missile flew around 700 km (435 miles). The Joint Chiefs of Staff did not identify Wednesday's weapon as a short-range ballistic missile, saying authorities were conducting a detailed analysis of its specifications.
The omission leaves open the question of what type of missile it was, analysts said. Ballistic missiles with ranges of 300 km to 1,000 km are generally classified as short-range.
Hong said the range, trajectory and launch site suggested it may have been a type of hypersonic missile, though a submarine-launched missile was also possible.
There was no immediate statement from Pyongyang on the launch.
CONDEMNATION AND HEIGHTENED TENSIONS
South Korea and Japan both condemned the launch.
"Japan lodged a strong protest with North Korea through diplomatic channels at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing and strongly condemned the action," Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters.
On Tuesday, North Korean state media condemned Japan's latest defence white paper as a document aimed at reviving militarism, saying Tokyo was using what it called an unfounded portrayal of Pyongyang as a security threat to justify an arms buildup.
South Korea's Office of National Security convened an emergency meeting and expressed concern over North Korea's continued ballistic-missile launches following the August 6 firing. It urged Pyongyang to halt provocations that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
South Korea's military said it was maintaining readiness to respond "overwhelmingly" to any provocation under its combined defence posture with the United States.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it was consulting closely with allies and partners, adding that its initial assessment was that the launch posed no immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to its allies.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow used North Korean ballistic missiles during a Russian attack that killed seven workers at a steel plant in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok Shim in Seoul and Shiho Tanaka in Tokyo; Editing by Chris Reese, Ed Davies and Sonali Paul)
