North Korea fires long-range missile ahead of South Korea, Japan meeting

North Korea conducted a missile test with its longest ever flight time off its east coast on Wednesday, as leaders of South Korea and Japan were set to meet on the sidelines of a NATO summit to discuss threats including the nuclear-armed North, Report informs via Reuters.

The launch came after heated complaints from North Korea in recent days, accusing American spy planes of violating airspace in its economic zones, condemning a recent visit to South Korea by an American nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, and promising to take steps in reaction.

The missile flew for 74 minutes to an altitude of 6,000 km and range of 1,000 km, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matusno said, in what would be the longest ever flight time for a North Korean missile.

In April North Korea test fired its first ever solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), one of around a dozen missile tests this year. Analysts believe the North's ICBMs can fly far enough to strike targets anywhere in the United States, and the country likely has developed nuclear warheads that can fit on rockets.

Japan's Coast Guard said what was believed to be a ballistic missile appeared to have landed as of mid-morning. It had earlier predicted the projectile would fall outside Japan's EEZ and around 550 km east of the Korean peninsula.

Leif-Eric Easley, an international studies professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said North Korea's recent bellicose statements against US surveillance aircraft was part of a pattern of inflating external threats to rally domestic support and justify weapons tests.