- Military officials have said North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile today.
- Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said it was "absolutely unforgivable."
- The United States condemned the latest launch, and called on North Korea to "refrain from further destabilizing acts."
North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile on Sunday, military officials in South Korea and Japan said, in the first test since the nuclear-armed country conducted a record number of launches in January, Reuters reports.
Sunday's missile flew to an altitude of around 390 miles and a range of 190 miles.
Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said that this launch was part of "frequent launches" since the beginning of the year. It said that North Korea was threatening the security of Japan and the international community, Reuters reported.
"If North Korea deliberately carried out the missile launch while the international community is distracted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, such an act is absolutely unforgivable," he told reporters, according to AP.
"Whatever the motives are, North Korea's repeated missile launches are absolutely inexcusable, and we cannot overlook considerable missile and nuclear advancement," Kishi said.
"Putin's War shapes almost all geopolitics right now and should factor somewhere in Kim's calculus," Professor John Delury of South Korea's Yonsei University wrote on Twitter.
According to AP, some experts believe that North Korea's development of weapons technology is to pressure the United States into offering concessions and sanctions relief amid long-running disarmament talks.
In a statement on the US Indo-Pacific command's website, the United States condemned the latest launch and called on North Korea to "refrain from further destabilizing acts."
The post added that the event is not thought to pose a threat to the US or its allies, noting that the United States' "commitment to the defense of the ROK and Japan remains ironclad."
North Korea's last test was on January 30, when it fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which the state was capable of reaching the US territory of Guam.