North Korea Suspected of New Missile Launch, Possibly Ballistic

North Korea test fired what could have be another ballistic missile off its east coast early Monday.


South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing South Korean military officials, says the launch came near the coastal town of Wonsan. Japan's Kyodo news agency and the U.S. Pacific Command confirmed the launch.


Neither Yonhap nor the South Korean military has firmly identified it as a missile. But Japan says whatever it was landed in Japanese territory, causing no damage.


This would be the second North Korean missile test in a week.


North Korea apparently is determined to develop a missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon and able to reach the U.S. mainland. But it is nearly impossible to know how much progress it has made towards that goal.


The Trump administration, while condemning North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un, has yet to come out with a firm policy on how to react to Pyongyang. It has sent a naval force off the Korean peninsula and held joint military exercises with South Korea as warnings.