PhotoSEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a missile off its east coast on Wednesday, but the test apparently failed, South Korean and American military officials said. North Korea launched the missile from near an air base in Wonsan, a port city, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a brief statement. North Korea has become one of the Trump administration’s most pressing national security issues, as it was for the last years of the Obama administration. The United States has often sent its strategic bombers to South Korea to demonstrate its commitment to defend its ally from the North Korean nuclear threat. But Pyongyang rattled the region last month by successfully launching a new intermediate-range ballistic missile that it said could carry a nuclear payload.

Source: New York Times March 22, 2017 04:00 UTC