South Korea Working on Appropriate Response to North’s Missile Test

South Korea is working together with other countries to determine what punitive actions will be an appropriate response to Pyongyang’s new missile launch, the Korean acting president said Sunday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — "Our government, in tandem with the international community, is doing its best to ensure a corresponding response to punish the North," Hwang Kyo-ahn said, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

A ballistic missile was launched early Sunday from an airbase in the North Pyongan province. It travelled around 300 miles before plunging into the Sea of Japan. Its type is still to be established.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Japanese and US experts were working to determine whether the missile was an intermediate-range Musudan or a mid-range Rodong.

They said it did not seem to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), according to the agency.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga did not exclude that US President Donald Trump could discuss the missile launch with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. They are scheduled to have a working dinner later today.

The Korean military suggested that North Korea planned the missile launch, the first since Trump took office last month, as a show of power directed at the new US administration.