At same time, the South Korean military confirmed the launch of an unidentified ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, noting that the missiles were launched from Pyongyang's Sunan area in a period of about 10 minutes from 6:10 p.m. (9:10 a.m. GMT)

The missile launch came as United States Vice President Kamala Harris was poised to pay a visit to South Korea from Thursday, after traveling to Japan for the state funeral of slain former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

It has been North Korea’s second launch in four days.

Since 2006, the country has been conducting a series of six nuclear tests at increasing levels of expertise, prompting the imposition of sanctions. (ILKHA)