SEOUL, October 31. /TASS/. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired a ballistic missile in the early hours of Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

According to the report, the missile was fired towards the Sea of Japan.

The launch was also reported by the Defense Ministry of Japan, the Kyodo news agency said.

Missile splashed down

According to the ministry’s preliminary estimates, the projectile was expected to splash down presumably at around 2:36 a.m. Moscow time (11:36 p.m. Wednesday GMT), around 300 km west of Japan’s Okushiri Island, outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

The Kyodo news agency said, citing government sources, that the projectile is likely to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) flying along a steep trajectory.

Missile reaches all-time-high altitude of over 7,000 km

"The duration of flight was 86 minutes, which is the longest-ever flight period. The altitude is estimated to exceed 7,000 km, which also differs from what we saw before," Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said.

"We can presume that the missile was an intercontinental one, although we continue our analysis to determine whether it was of a new type," the minister added.

According to the ministry’s preliminary estimates, the projectile splashed down around 300 km west of Japan’s Okushiri Island, outside of the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The Japanese cabinet of ministers convoked an emergency meeting of the National Security Council in connection with the launch.

It was DPRK’s 12th missile launch this year. The latest ICBM test took place in December 2023, when the DPRK military fired a Hwasong-18 three-stage solid-fuel ICBM.