Pentagon: Recent North Korean test was a short- to medium-range ballistic missile

The most recent North Korean missile test was a short- to medium-range ballistic missile “fired from a sea-based platform,” a top Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder told reporters that North Korea launched the missile from its southern Wonsan Bay, and the missile flew about 280 miles into the Sea of Japan, also called the East Sea.

{mosads}North Korea announced earlier Thursday that it had successfully tested a new submarine-launched ballistic missile a day prior, according to its state media outlet KCNA.

Ryder said the Pentagon has “no indication that it was launched from a submarine, but rather, a sea-based platform.”

Top Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said later in the briefing that Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke with his Japanese counterpart in a call earlier Thursday.

The two agreed that tests are “unnecessarily provocative and not helpful in an effort to get the North Koreans back on a diplomatic path,” Hoffman said.

The test came a day after the State Department announced that Washington and Pyongyang would hold talks on curtailing North Korea’s nuclear program following a months-long stalemate and multiple missile tests.