North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Toward East Sea, Officials Say by STELLA KIM and TIM STELLOH

NEWS JUL 3 2017, 10:55 PM ET
North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Toward East Sea, Officials Say
by STELLA KIM and TIM STELLOH

North Korea fired a ballistic missile from its eastern coast toward the East Sea on Tuesday, military officials said.

The launch — one of several this year — was detected at about 9:40 a.m. local time (8:40 p.m. ET Monday), a South Korean military official told NBC News.

U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii said it detected what it assessed as an intermediate-range ballistic missile near North Korea's Panghyon Airfield. The missile was tracked for 37 minutes and landed in the Sea of Japan, it said.

Image: Kim Jong Un with missile
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a Hwasong-12 missile in an undated photo released May 15 by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. KCNA / via Reuters
The Japanese government's main spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, told reporters that there were no immediate reports of damage to planes and ships in the area.

Suga said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had instructed the government to "to be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances."

The launch, which came amid steadily escalating tensions between North Korea and the United States, prompted President Donald Trump to tweet, "Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?" — an apparent reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump suggested that the launch could lead China to "put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!"