SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea defied U.N. resolutions by firing a medium-range ballistic missile into the sea on Friday, Seoul and Washington officials said, days after its leader Kim Jong Un ordered weapons tests linked to its pursuit of a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the missile fired from a site north of Pyongyang flew about 800 kilometers before crashing off the North's east coast.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it wasn't known what type of missile was fired, but a South Korean defense official, requesting anonymity citing department rules, said it is the first medium-range missile launched by the North since April 2014 when it fired two.

A senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon can confirm the missile launch, saying it appears to be a Rodong missile fired from a road-mobile launcher. The official said the test violated multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from engaging in any ballistic and nuclear activities. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said later Friday its surveillance equipment detected the trajectory of a suspected second missile fired from a site where the North's confirmed first launch occurred. A Joint Chiefs of Staff statement said the object later disappeared from South Korean radar at an altitude of 17 kilometers and that it was trying to find out if a missile had been fired or something else was captured by the radar.

Friday's launch came as North Korea reacts to ongoing annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that it sees as an invasion rehearsal. The drills are the largest ever, in response to the North's nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

In recent weeks, North Korea threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes against Washington and Seoul and test-fired short-range missiles and artillery into the sea in response to tough U.N. sanctions imposed over its nuclear test and rocket launch. The North says it needs nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls U.S. military threats.

On Tuesday, North Korea's state media said Kim had ordered tests soon of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying warheads. Kim issued that order while overseeing a successful simulated test of a re-entry vehicle aimed at returning a nuclear warhead into the atmosphere from space so it could hit its intended target, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.

A TV screen shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news program, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 15, 2016. Photo: Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press

Taewoo Kim, a military expert at the South's Konyang University, said it is likely that Friday's launch was a test of a re-entry vehicle.

Some analysts had earlier predicted the North might fire a missile carrying an empty warhead, which contain trigger devices but lack plutonium or uranium, to see if those warhead's parts can survive the high pressure and temperatures upon re-entry into the atmosphere and if they could detonate at the right time.

Outside experts said it is a key remaining technology that North Korea must master to achieve its goal of developing a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. South Korean defense officials said earlier this week that North Korea had yet to develop the re-entry technology, so it still does not have a functioning intercontinental ballistic missile.

It was not clear if Friday's launch was meant to test a re-entry vehicle or other weapons technologies or was just intended as a show of force against Washington and Seoul.

The South Korean defense official said Seoul has no immediate plans to try to retrieve debris of the missile that appeared to have landed in the waters side Japan's air defense identification zone. He said South Korea did not retrieve missile parts after the North's 2014 launches.

North Korea is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs, but South Korean officials and many outside experts say they are not small enough to place on missiles that can strike faraway targets.

Analyst Lee Choon Geun at South Korea's state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute said the North can probably place nuclear warheads on its shorter-range Scuds and medium-range Rodong missiles, which would put South Korea and Japan under its striking range. Other analysts question that.

The North began to develop ballistic missiles in the 1970s by reverse-engineering Soviet-made Scuds it acquired from Egypt. After several failures it put its first satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket launched in December 2012. Its second successful satellite launch occurred this February. The U.N., the U.S. and others say the launches were a banned test of missile technology. Ballistic missiles and rockets used for satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology.

Experts say a militarized version of the rocket the North used to put its second satellite into orbit in February would potentially have the range to reach the U.S. mainland. However, there are questions as none of North Korea's possible candidates for an intercontinental ballistic missile have been tested "end-to-end," from launch through re-entry and warhead delivery, to show they actually work.

The Korean Peninsula officially remains in a state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. The U.S. deploys about 28,500 troops in South Korea as deterrence against potential aggression from North Korea.

Story: Hyung-Jin Kim and Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press

NEW DELHI — Security personnel have evacuated passengers and crew from two aircrafts operating from New Delhi's international airport after they received anonymous phone calls of explosives being placed in the planes.

Myanmar Now

YANGON — Across Myanmar, Htin Kyaw’s appointment as president on Tuesday was greeted with optimism as finally a civilian, and not a general, will lead the government. But the simultaneous approval of the military’s choice for vice-president, Myint Swe, shocked those who suffered under the junta-era hardliner.

Observers warn his appointment may indicate that the military has no intention of co-operating with the incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) government, which will seek sweeping reforms.

Myint Swe gained 213 votes out of 652 cast, getting votes from the Union, Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and military lawmakers occupying a quarter of parliament. He became first vice-president, a key government position that will give him a seat on the 11-member National Security and Defence Council.

Trusted Aung San Suu Kyi aide Htin Kyaw gained the majority vote and he is expected to become a 'proxy president' who defers to the NLD leader for all important government decisions.

As the first vice-president, Myint Swe would serve as Acting President, albeit temporarily, if the presidency falls vacant due to resignation, death, permanent disability or any other cause.  

“I am extremely surprised about this appointment. U Myint Swe supervised the brutal crackdown on the Saffron Revolution in 2007,” said Thobita, a Buddhist monk in Mandalay who participated in the monk-led democratic uprising and was subsequently imprisoned by authorities.

Myint Swe was military commander of Yangon Region and oversaw the deployment of soldiers to violently clear protesters from the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city. Before the crackdown, he had been functioning as “Than Shwe’s eyes and ears” in Yangon, a 2006 US Embassy cable released by Wikileaks said. Myint Swe was placed on a US Treasury sanctions list for Specially Designated Persons for his role in the crackdown.

At the start of Myanmar’s democratic transition in 2010, Myint Swe shed his uniform to join the USDP and become Yangon Region chief minister, a position he held until recently.

He is seen as having the trust of former strongman Than Shwe, so much so that Myint Swe was put in charge of Myanmar’s notorious spying apparatus, the Military Intelligence, after its powerful chief, Khin Nyunt, was purged in 2004.

Kyaw Win, a well-known local political analyst, said the appointment of Myint Swe as vice-president – instead of a more reform-minded ex-general – showed the enduring power of the retired Than Shwe, now 83 and living in a heavily guarded compound in the capital Naypyitaw. “He can still retain his influence on the army,” Kyaw Win said.

According to NLD MP Ba Myo Thein, who was on the parliamentary commission vetting the presidential nominees, Myint Swe was selected by the army to "protect its interests". The military elites and families control several businesses.

Asked how an US-blacklisted ex-general could pass the parliamentary vetting process, Ba Myo Thein said, “The Constitution doesn’t say anything about overseas blacklisting.”

Myint Swe was nominated for the position once before, in 2012, but it turned out his son-in-law held Australian citizenship, which banned him from the position under the Constitution’s Article 59(f), the same clause that prevents Suu Kyi from assuming the presidency as her sons are British nationals.

Taryar Myint Swe, the son-in-law, has renounced his Australian citizenship, according to Ba Myo Thein.

‘A Very Poor and Potentially Confrontational Choice’

Nyo Nyo Thin, a former MP in the Yangon Region parliament, said as chief minister Myint Swe had resisted reforms and transparency, while his role in awarding a cancelled real estate project to an unknown company raised questions.

This, she said, does not bode well for his new role in a NLD-led cabinet. “Myint Swe’s term as (chief minister) left the clear impression that he is an old-style army loyalist. That’s why he was chosen by the army for this (vice-president) position,” Nyo Nyo Thin said.

David Mathieson, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said, it was “a very poor and potentially confrontational choice by the Tatmadaw (army) to nominate Myint Swe and then vote him in.

“Unfortunately this augers badly for improved NLD-Tatmadaw cooperation, Myint Swe is a symbol of the former military regime… He represents all the forces that may limit or thwart the nascent democratic transition.”

Myint Swe could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts by Myanmar Now to contact his office.  

USDP MP Hla Htay Win defended the appointment and said Myint Swe had been selected because of “his good experience” in senior government positions.

Asked how the United States is going to deal with Vice-President Myint Swe and whether he will remain on the sanctions list, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last week, “I have seen nothing that says this individual is going to be taken off that list.”