In spite of China’s careful arrangement of the summit, which it regards as the year’s

most important diplomatic event, North Korea just hours before its opening launched a ballistic missile, violating UN Security Council resolutions.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Sunday in an apparent test of the South’s new president and as an important international meeting got underway in Beijing.

The missile flew about 700 kilometres before landing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The US Pacific Command said it did not appear to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The missile launch came as leaders of 28 nations and senior officials from many more gather in Beijing on May 14-15 for a summit dedicated to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a modern-day “Silk Road” designed to link China with the rest of Asia, Europe and Africa.

In spite of China’s careful arrangement of the summit, which it regards as the year’s most important diplomatic event, North Korea just hours before its opening launched a ballistic missile, violating UN Security Council resolutions. North Korea has sent an official delegation to attend the Belt and Road Forum.

New South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who was inaugurated on Wednesday, slammed the test as a “reckless provocation” after holding an emergency meeting with national security advisors.

He said the government strongly condemned this “grave challenge to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the international community,” his spokesman Yoon Young-chan said.

Moon, unlike his conservative predecessors, advocates reconciliation with Pyongyang but warned Sunday that dialogue would be possible “only if the North changes its behaviour”.

Moon had said in his inauguration speech that he was willing to visit Pyongyang “in the right circumstances” to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula, with Pyongyang and Washington exchanging hostile rhetoric.

More at http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2094246/north-korea-fires-unidentified-projectile-south-korea-military