Kim Jong-un's sister warns of turning Pacific into 'shooting range'

North Korea has fired another ballistic missile off its east coast, South Korea's military said, after leader Kim Jong-un's sister warned of turning the Pacific Ocean into a "shooting range".

According to Reuters, South Korea has not yet released further information about the missile launch that took place early this morning (February 20) by North Korea.

A North Korean missile launch. Photo: Reuters

Meanwhile, the Japanese Coast Guard said North Korea launched three objects that were likely ballistic missiles shortly after 10 p.m. GMT on February 19 (5 a.m. Vietnam time on February 20). NHK reported that all three objects fell into the sea within minutes and were outside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Earlier, Ms. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong-un, made a statement opposing the increasing presence of US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula.

“We are carefully examining its impact on the security of our country. How often we use the Pacific Ocean as a firing range depends on the characteristics of the US forces’ actions,” Yo Jong stressed.

Yo Jong also dismissed foreign experts' assessments of North Korea's missile capabilities, after some pointed out that it took more than nine hours for the "sudden" launch to take place on leader Kim's orders. She said South Korea did not even have time to send reconnaissance planes to the scene at the time of the launch.

The latest move by North Korea comes just two days after the country unexpectedly fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea off the west coast of Japan. This is the third major weapons test by North Korea this year, after Pyongyang threatened an "unprecedentedly strong and persistent" response in response to the US and South Korea moving ahead with annual military exercises aimed at countering missile and nuclear threats from the Northeast Asian country.