AKIPRESS.COM - North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday that landed in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions, Reuters reported.

The main body of the missile landed in Japan's economic exclusion zone, a Japanese defense official said, escalating regional tensions that were already high after a series of missile launches and the decision by the United States to place a sophisticated anti-missile system in South Korea.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the launch as a "grave threat" to Japan and said Tokyo "strongly protested".

The missile that landed in the Sea of Japan was launched at about 7:50 a.m. Seoul time (2250 GMT Tuesday) from a region in South Hwanghae province to the southwest of the capital, Pyongyang, South Korea's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The launch showed North Korean ambition to "directly and broadly attack neighboring countries and target several places in the Republic of Korea such as ports and airfields", the statement said, referring to South Korea by its official title.