North Korea on Tuesday carried out a new missile test, the second in six days, firing another projectile towards the sea, South Korea and Japan confirmed.

It was not immediately clear what type of missile was fired and how far it travelled.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from the North Korean inland and flew towards the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

They said it could be a ballistic missile.

Japanese government officials also spoke of a suspected ballistic missile as they confirmed the test of the new weapon by North Korea, the Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.

Tokyo said the rocket fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone into the Sea of Japan.

The South Korean military said it would analyse the latest missile test in greater detail with U.S. authorities.

The latest launch came on the heels of a Monday United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss a North Korean test last week that Pyongyang said was a successful test-fire of a hypersonic missile.

Western members of the Security Council said that the missile testing poses a grave threat to regional security in East Asia.

Pyongyang’s provocations “increase the risk of miscalculation and escalation,’’ a joint statement by the U.S., Britain, France, Ireland and Albania said along with Japan.

Japan is not currently a member of the council.

“Each missile launch serves not only to advance (North Korea’s) own capabilities, but to expand the suite of weapons available for export to its illicit arms clients and dealers around the world,’’ they said.

North Korea has for years worked on missiles capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads.

The world had responded with sanctions that had done little to check ruler Kim Jong Un’s ambitions. United Nations resolutions ban North Korea from testing missiles that could carry a nuclear warhead.

Hypersonic missiles, which reached five times the speed of sound and were difficult to detect, could possibly also carry a warhead of this kind.

Negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. have not made any progress since a failed summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. president Donald Trump in Vietnam in February 2019. 

(dpa/NAN)