Missile test ‘regular, planned self-defense’: North Korea

North Korea said its missile test was a “planned” action against a direct military threat, media reports said Saturday.

“The missile test launch by the DPRK is a regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country's security and the regional peace from the US direct military threats that have lasted for more than half a century,” according to the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, citing Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea launched a missile Tuesday which flew above Japan and fell into the East Sea. It marked the first time that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile above the Japanese archipelago in five years.