North Korea Fires Suspected Ballistic Missile Off Its Eastern Coast

North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile off its eastern coast on Saturday, South Korean and Japanese officials said, as Pyongyang appeared to continue its recent spree of weapons activity.

The missile was fired at 8:48 a.m. from the North’s Sunan region, which is located just outside Pyongyang, Seoul’s military said. It had a steep trajectory, hitting an altitude of about 340 miles and traveling about 185 miles before splashing into the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to an initial Tokyo assessment.

Before Saturday, the Kim Jong Un regime had conducted eight weapons tests this year, from self-proclaimed hypersonic weapons to missiles fired from a train. North Korea had conducted its most-recent test just under a week ago on Feb. 27, launching into space equipment including cameras and communications systems for its military reconnaissance satellite under development. The rocket technology used for the launch closely mirrors what is used in longer-range missiles.

The Saturday launch has flight data similar to that of the Feb. 27 test, with the missile being fired from the same Sunan area. North Korea didn’t have an immediate comment on the Saturday launch.

South Korea’s National Security Council urged North Korea to “immediately stop acts that raise tensions” and pledged to boost its monitoring of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile facilities. The latest North Korea missile test poses a threat to the peace and stability of the region and international community, said Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi.

“The launch was conducted while the international community was responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and also during the Beijing Paralympic Games. I would like to reiterate we absolutely cannot condone this,” Mr. Kishi said.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said that the launch “does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory or that of our allies” and that the command would monitor the situation.

A State Department spokeswoman said the latest launch, like its predecessors, “demonstrates the threat the DPRK’s illicit weapons of mass destruction and missile programs pose to the DPRK’s neighbors and the region as a whole.” DPRK is an abbreviation for the Kim Jong Un regime’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang’s ballistic-missile tests violate a raft of United Nations Security Council resolutions. But the Kim regime has claimed such activity is a sovereign right. Nuclear talks between the U.S. and North Korea remain gridlocked, with no formal negotiations having been held for more than two years.

Earlier this week, the U.S., U.K., France, several other U.N. Security Council member states and Japan issued a joint statement condemning North Korea’s Feb. 27 launch, calling it yet another example of destabilizing behavior, according to the joint statement.

Pyongyang started the year on an unprecedented pace of weapons launches. It conducted more tests in the month of January than it had in all of last year. With its economy battered by sanctions and pandemic precautions, North Korea has turned inward, shunning diplomatic outreach and even international relief groups’ offers of Covid-19 vaccines.

The Kim regime’s latest weapons test could create more problems for the Biden administration as it contends with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though the activity may also have some ripple effects in South Korea, which has a presidential election Wednesday.

Under left-leaning President Moon Jae -in, Seoul has adopted a pro-engagement policy with Pyongyang. It is a tight race between Lee Jae-myung, a ruling party progressive, who would largely maintain Mr. Moon’s approach, and Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who pledges to take a more confrontational stance with the Kim regime.

“Pyongyang’s threatening posture actually helps the candidate calling for peace at all costs instead of the one standing up to the tyrannical regime,” said Lee Sung-yoon, a Korea expert at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.

The latest missile test could be framed by Lee Jae-myung, of the Democratic Party, as Pyongyang lashing out against a hard-lined conservative and therefore voters should opt to reup with a president who will give priority to diplomacy, Prof. Lee said.

North Korea also appears to have kept up production of plutonium and enriched uranium at its Yongbyon facility, according to a satellite-imagery analysis published on Thursday by 38 North, a website focused on North Korea. New construction throughout the Yongbyon facility, plus the restarting of a nuclear reactor last year and other developments, suggest the complex is “primed for expansion,” according to the 38 North report.