A ballistic missile launched by North Korea toward waters off its eastern shoreline on Saturday drew confirmation from both South Korean and Japanese authorities, with the test coming one day after Pyongyang dismissed Seoul's assertion that landmines of its placing had left soldiers injured.

According to a statement from the South Korean military, the projectile lifted off from the vicinity of Wonsan at roughly 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, covering a distance of more than 700 kilometres — about 434 miles — before coming down. According to the statement, officials from both sides were examining the flight data in an effort to reconstruct the sequence of events.

A maritime advisory from the coast guard, relayed through a defence ministry statement, indicated the unidentified object could have been a ballistic missile and appeared to have descended, with vessels in the area urged to exercise caution. Surveillance of any additional missile launches was stepped up by the armed forces, which also indicated that intelligence findings would be passed along to counterparts in the United States and Japan.

A gathering of the presidential office's national security council took place on Saturday to evaluate developments following the missile launch, according to a statement from the office.

Ballistic missile tests attributed to North Korea have been recorded on upwards of ten separate occasions within the current calendar year. On occasion, officials in Pyongyang have described the launches as trials of newly developed weapons platforms. A portion of those launches occurred in the period following objections raised by North Korea over joint military exercises conducted between South Korea and the United States.

The missile launch came shortly after Kim Yo Jong — who serves as Kim Jong Un's sister and carries notable sway within the Pyongyang leadership — put out a Friday statement in which she set aside Seoul's demand for an apology over what South Korean authorities characterised as landmines planted by the North that had left soldiers injured within the Demilitarised Zone, the heavily fortified buffer running between the two halves of the peninsula. Two soldiers were injured by landmines during patrol operations inside the roughly four-kilometre demilitarised corridor separating the two Koreas, with authorities in the South pointing to North Korea as responsible for placing the devices.

According to Cheong Seong-chang, a vice president at the Seoul-based Sejong Institute, which focuses on North Korean affairs, the launch may have been intended to provoke a reaction from South Korea in response to the statement issued by Kim Jong Un's sister. He went on to note that a new category of missile may have been put to the test by North Korea as well.

North Korea's formal policy stance shifted away from reunification as a national goal, with South Korea now designated in official doctrine as the country's primary adversarial state.