
North Korea fired an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korea said on Friday, a day after it launched a smaller missile and warned of "fiercer military responses" to the US boosting its regional security presence, Reuters reported.
Japan's Coast Guard said the missile was likely to have landed in the sea roughly 210 kilometers west of Hokkaido.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said there had been no reports of damage but the North's repeated missile launches could not be tolerated. He said the missile appeared to have landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
A day earlier, North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile while its foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, warned of "fiercer military responses" to US moves to boost its military presence, saying Washington was taking a "gamble it will regret".
North Korea has tested dozens of ballistic weapons in 2022, including its first intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017, as it continues to expand its military capabilities amid a prolonged stalemate in nuclear diplomacy.
Earlier this month, North Korea test-fired multiple missiles, including a possible failed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and hundreds of artillery shells into the sea, as South Korea and the United States carried out six-day air drills.
Tensions have escalated between North and South Korea after a series of ballistic missile tests that North Korea has conducted in recent weeks.
At the end of October, the two countries exchanged warning shots along their disputed western sea boundary.
A month earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of two long-range strategic cruise missiles.