North Korea launched offshore ballistic missile, says the South

North Korea has fired a ballistic missile submarine launch from its east coast, South Korea said.

The North fired the missile towards the north-east of an area outside its east coast at 6:30 pm (0930 GMT) on Saturday, the office of South chiefs of staff, said.

The announcement comes during a concern that the reclusive state might conduct a nuclear test or missile launch ahead of a meeting of the party in power in May.

North Korea will hold a party congress of its ruling Workers in early May for the first time in 36 years, which is expected to its leader, Kim Jong-un, to say the country is a strong military power and a nuclear state.

The missile flew for about 30 km (18 miles), a Ministry of Defense of South Korea, adding his army was trying to determine whether the release may have been a failure for unspecified reasons she said.

Yonhap news agency of South Korea said the missile flew "a few minutes", citing a government source.

The State Department in Washington said it was aware of the reports North had launched what appeared to be a ballistic missile.

"Lanza using ballistic missile technology is a clear violation of several Security Council resolutions of the UN," said State Department spokesman, John Kirby.

It attempted first launch of the missile for submarines last year and is in the early stages of development of a weapons system for example, which could represent a new threat to its neighbors and the United States if it is perfected.

However, follow-up test launches has fallen short of expectations as its northern footage state media appeared to have been edited for false success, according to experts who have seen the images is created.

The Army of South Korea has said it is on alert to the possibility that the isolated North could carry out its fifth nuclear test "at any time" in defiance of UN sanctions after leaving what he said was a device hydrogen in January.

Satellite images will show that North Korea could have resumed digging tunnels in place of main nuclear testing, which is similar to the activity observed before testing January a website monitoring US North Korea reported on Wednesday.

South Korea and the US, as well as experts believe the North is working to develop a system of submarine-launched ballistic missile and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) putting the continental United States within the scope .

North Korea has banned tests and activities using ballistic missile technology under UN sanctions dating back to 2006 and most recently approved in March nuclear but has continued to work to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and develop an intercontinental ballistic missile.

A senior US official said this week that North Korea should take a lesson from Iran, which has agreed to roll back its nuclear program to an agreement with Western in exchange for lifting major sanctions powers, but the North has shown no sign such a pact enter.