SEOUL, North Korea fired an unspecified ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Monday, the South Korean military said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch but did not give further details. The Japanese coast guard said a suspected North Korean ballistic missile landed in the ocean. It marks the North's second ballistic missile launch of the year since the first on Jan. 14, when it test-fired a solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile carrying a hypersonic warhead. Pyongyang conducted five rounds of cruise missile tests this year, raising concerns over the weapons systems, which are harder to detect and shoot down. The launch comes days after Seoul and Washington wrapped up the annual Freedom Shield exercise, which focused on bolstering deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. North Korea has long denounced the allies' military drills as rehearsals for an invasion against it, while Seoul and Washington have rejected such claims, describing their exercises as defensive in nature. It comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Seoul earlier in the day to attend the Summit for Democracy, a ministerial conference that brings together top government officials from some 30 countries. Source: Yonhap News Agency