SEOUL/TOKYO - North Korea fired a missile its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea and Japan said, days after it unveiled a uranium enrichment facility and vowed to beef up its nuclear arsenal. Japan's Defence Ministry said the North appears to have used a ballistic missile,

North Korea launched a ballistic missile overnight on September 18 toward the East Sea. The airborne target fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to the South Korean edition of Yonhap News and the Japanese news agency NHK.

Analysts in Seoul have expressed growing concern that both political parties competing for the presidency in the U.S. may shift away from the long-standing goal of denuclearizing Pyongyang.