North Korea launches short-range ballistic missile

North Korea on Sunday fired a short-range ballistic missile, according to the South Korean military, in the fourth show of force in a week coinciding with Seoul and Washington holding their biggest joint military exercises in five years.

Seoul and Washington have been holding unprecedented military exercises since Monday aimed at strengthening cooperation between the two allies in countering the nuclear threat posed by North Korea. The exercise, dubbed Freedom Shield, lasts ten days.

The drills infuriate Pyongyang, which sees them as exercises for an invasion of its territory and regularly vows a "crushing" response.

"Our military detected a short-range ballistic missile launched from the vicinity of Tongchang-ri area of North Pyongan province at 11.05 a.m. (02:05 GMT) towards the East Sea," also known as the Sea of Japan, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The missile traveled a distance of 800 km, the General Staff said in a statement, calling the launch a "serious provocation" that violates international sanctions.

"Our military remains on strong readiness based on its ability to respond aggressively to any provocation from North Korea, while conducting intensive and comprehensive joint exercises and exercises," the command said.

Tokyo confirmed the launch and Deputy Defense Minister Toshiro Inoue told reporters that Japan had "lodged a strongly worded protest and strongly condemned (North Korea) through our embassy in Beijing."

Japan's coastguard warned the ships of "what appears to be a ballistic missile launched from North Korea," adding: "It appears to have fallen."

Kyodo news agency, citing unnamed sources, said the missile may have crossed an irregular trajectory and appeared to have landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command condemned the missile launch, saying it highlighted the "destabilizing effect" of North Korea's banned weapons programs.

Hours after the missile launch, South Korea's Defense Ministry announced joint air exercises with the United States involving at least one U.S. long-range B-1B bomber.

South Korean F-35A stealth fighters and U.S. F-16 fighter jets also participated in Freedom Shield.

The ministry said in a statement that the drills "significantly enhanced the interoperability of allies ... and war capabilities."

The launch comes after the North's KCNA news agency reported Saturday that more than 800,<> North Koreans had volunteered to join the military to fight "US imperialists."

The agency noted that the young volunteers are determined to "ruthlessly eliminate war geeks", so they joined the army "to defend the country".

In a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency on Sunday, the North's foreign ministry "strongly" warned the United States and other countries against including "legitimate self-defense countermeasures of the North Korean Republic in U.N. Security Council discussions."

In a separate statement, the State Department also criticized U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield over the recent U.N. meeting on human rights abuses in North Korea.