Seoul, March 5 : North Korea has launched an apparent ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Saturday, just four days ahead of the Presidential election in the country, media reports said. The launch was detected from around the Sunan area in capital Pyongyang and the missile flew around 270 km at a top altitude of 560 km, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The latest launch, the North’s ninth show of force this year, came less than a week after it claimed to have conducted a ‘reconnaissance satellite’ development test that the South called a ballistic missile launch, Yonhap News Agency reported. “Currently, our military is tracking and monitoring (North Korean) movements regarding the possibility of an additional launch and maintaining a readiness posture,” the Joint Chiefs said. The North’s continued saber-rattling signals that it seeks to bolster its military presence when the armed conflict in Ukraine is gobbling up global attention, citing observers Yonhap reported. The US has also condemned the missile launch and called on the North to refrain from further ‘destabilising acts’. “We are aware of the The North’s ballistic missile launch and are consulting closely with South Korea and Japan, as well as other regional allies and partners,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. “While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel, territory or that of our allies, we will continue to monitor the situation. The US commitment to the defence of the South and Japan, remains ironclad,” the statement read. Since the start of this year, the North has launched a barrage of missiles, including its self-proclaimed hypersonic missile, using various platforms, such as a road-mobile launcher and a railway-borne one. The launch on Saturday came as Pyongyang sought to strengthen internal solidarity amid a deadlock in nuclear talks with Washington and economic woes aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the South Korean News Agency. VP ING