North Korea launches missile ahead of South Korea-Japan summit

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan on Thursday, just hours before South Korea's president was due to fly to Tokyo for a rare summit expected to discuss ways to counter the nuclear-armed North.

North Korea has conducted multiple missile launches this week amid ongoing joint South Korea-US military drills that Pyongyang condemns as hostile actions.

In a statement on Thursday, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North had launched at least one unknown type of ballistic missile off its east coast.

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Japan's government also confirmed the launch, and Japan's coast guard estimated it would land roughly an hour after it was fired, suggesting it was a long-range weapon such as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Yoon is headed to Japan for the first such summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in more than a decade, part of an effort to overcome historical, political and economic disputes in the name of better cooperating to counter North Korea and other challenges.

As part of the efforts, the two US allies have agreed to share real-time tracking of North Korean missile launches, and have vowed to further deepen military cooperation.