North Korea has fired another ballistic missile towards JapanSouth Korea‘s Joint Chiefs of Staff have said.

Thursday’s missile launch was the sixth in 12 days and the first since it fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan on Tuesday.

It follows joint missile drills by South Korea and the United States and a return of a US aircraft carrier to the sea between Korea and Japan in response to North Korea’s recent missile tests.

A Tweet from Japan’s Ministry of Defence confirmed the news at 10.09pm (GMT).

It read: ‘A possible ballistic missile was launched from North Korea.

‘We will let you know as soon as we have further news.’

This is a breaking news story. More to follow