South Korea fires response after North Korea launches missile over Japan
North Korea fired a ballistic missile through Japanese airspace shortly before 2300 BST on Thursday evening, raising already heightened tensions in the region.
According to South Korea's military, the missile reached an estimated altitude of 770km while travelling 3,700km before splashing down into the Pacific Ocean off the east coast of Hokkaido.
This follows the North's threats earlier in the day to use a nuclear weapon to "sink" Japan and turn the US into “ashes and darkness” for agreeing on new UN sanctions this week.
Japanese Prime Minister said the nations would "never tolerate" such a "dangerous provocative action".
South Korean President Moon Jae-in held an emergency meeting of his national security council and within minutes Seoul had retaliated in kind by launching two ballistic missiles into the sea in what was referred to as a "simulated strike" on Pyongyang.
Moon said dialogue with the North was "impossible in a situation like this".
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned the launch, confirming the United Nations Security Council would meet on Friday, the second time in the week, at the behest of both Japan and the United States.
Tillerson said the hermit kingdom's primary economic partners, China and Russia, must convey their disapproval at the launch, saying they "must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own."
The range of the missile put Guam, the US Pacific island territory threatened by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, well within the range of the most recent missile, as it sits 3,400km away from Pyongyang.
The missile was fired from Sunan airfield north of Pyongyang at approximately 0700 local time and flew 220km higher and 1,000km further than its previous launch over Japan on 29 August. There had been no reports of damage as a result of the launch.
While the type of missile was not confirmed at the time of writing, many reports believe it to have been an intermediate range ballistic missile, however, Japanese officials have said there is a possibility it may have been an intercontinental ballistic missile.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called the launch "another reckless breach of UN resolutions" and said the Pyongyang's actions were demanding of a global response to what he referred to as a "major threat to international peace and security."
The UN Security Council, which reconvenes at 1500 New York time, could issue an additional response.
MARKET REACTION
Stock markets reacted fairly calmly, with Tokyo's Nikkei and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finishing higher and London's FTSE 100 opening only slightly lower, though Seoul's Kospi and the Shanghai Composite slightly lower.
Analyst Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets said investors response was rather muted "either because we’ve got used to the threats, expected it after recent sanctions led to more aggressive rhetoric, or because Pyongyang kept it local (another intermediate range rather than intercontinental), annoying Japan but not quite goading the West".
Connor Campbell at Spreadex added: "These North Korea missile launches seems to be following the law of diminishing returns - at least market-wise with the latest provocation from Pyongyang greeted with something of a shrug from investors."
While the dollar dropped against the yen from 110.7 to 109.6, it quickly unwound that move to stand broadly unchanged, while gold prices and US 10-year yields were also largely unchanged.
As Rabobank currency strategist Richard McGuire put it: "The extreme disparity between the current status quo and the break out of a nuclear conflict leaves investors trading North Korea in a binary rather than linear fashion. It is, after all, impossible to price in a little bit of Armageddon just as one cannot be a little bit pregnant."