The launch event came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting Seoul for talks with South Korean allies over the North Korean nuclear threat and other issues.

The missile launch by North Korea coincides with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Korea to discuss North Korean nuclear threat among other issues.

North Korea has fired what appears to be an intermediate range ballistic missile towards the sea to its east, South Korea's military said, in what is Pyongyang's first missile launch in two months. Japan's defence ministry said around noon local time (03:00 GMT) that the projectile had already fallen into the sea.