North Korea conducts ballistic missile test

North Korea has conducted its latest ballistic missile test, firing a projectile into the sea just off the coast of the Korean Peninsula, according to reports.

“Our assessment is that it is part of a show of force in response to the new U.S. administration’s hardline position against the North,” the office of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement reported by Reuters.

It is the first such test by the isolated nation since President Trump took office Jan. 20.

Military officials in South Korea and the U.S. were working to determine what kind of missile was launched, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said last month that the isolated nation was close to test launching another intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The latest missile, however, was likely not an ICBM, Yonhap reported.

{mosads}The missile launch comes as Trump hosts Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the weekend in the U.S. During a joint press conference on Friday, Trump said defending Japan was a “very, very high priority.”

On a visit to South Korea earlier this month, Secretary of Defense James Mattis also vowed to defend the U.S. ally against the Pyongyang’s burgeoning nuclear program.

North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year in a show of the country’s rapidly advancing weapons program.

Updated: 8:44 p.m.