North Korean leader Kim Jong Un once again supervised a "new weapon" launch, state media said Saturday, complicating efforts at denuclearisation ahead of next week's visit to Seoul by the US envoy to Pyongyang. Friday's launch was the North's sixth test in recent weeks as it protests the annual US-South Korea military exercises which Pyongyang considers rehearsals for invasion.

Defence officials in Seoul said Pyongyang fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles Friday, that flew some 230 kilometres (140 miles) before splashing down in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019