North Korea detected firing missile into the sea

The latest launch on Wednesday came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further boost his military capability at a high-profile ruling party conference last week

South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed-wire fence in Paju, near the border with North Korea (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

The South Korean and Japanese militaries say North Korea has fired a suspected ballistic missile into the sea.

It was the first such launch in about two months and taken as a signal Pyongyang is not interested in rejoining denuclearisation talks any time soon and would rather focus on boosting its weapons arsenal.