North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile on Saturday, Seoul's military said, continuing this year's record-breaking blitz of weapons tests with a launch just days before South Korea's presidential election.
Pyongyang test-fired a string of weaponry in January and last week launched what it claimed was a component of a"reconnaissance satellite" — although Seoul described it as another ballistic missile.
Instead of diplomacy, Pyongyang has doubled-down on Mr Kim's drive to modernise its military, warning in January that it could abandon a self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.South Korea's military said on Saturday it had detected a presumed "ballistic missile launched into the East Sea from the Sunan area around 8.48 am."
"Looks like Kim is feeling that Moon did not do much after the Hanoi summit collapsed," said North Korean studies scholar Ahn Chan-il, referring to the final meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Trump. But if Moon's ruling Democratic party lose on Wednesday, it could herald a shift in Seoul's North Korea policy.
"With these tests, North Korea seems to be saying North Korea is different from Ukraine, reminding the world that it has its own nuclear weaponry system," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
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