North Korea has launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan, according to Seoul and Tokyo, marking the second such test from Pyongyang in less than a week. ADVERTISEMENTJapan’s Defence Ministry said on social media that the suspected ballistic missile had “already fallen”, without providing further details. “North Korea has never simply let a South Korea-US joint military exercise pass without a response,” Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, told the AFP news agency. On August 6, it had fired another short-range ballistic missile from the same area, according to South Korea, Japan and the US. North Korea has also been accused of playing a more active role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.