SEOUL, Jan 5 (CGTN) - North Korea fired an unidentified projectile off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea's military said.

The projectile was fired into the sea east of the Korean peninsula, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. No further details were given as of yet.

Japan's coast guard said in a statement on Wednesday that the projectile could be a ballistic missile. North Korea is forbidden by international sanctions from testing ballistic missiles, but regularly carries out tests.

The launch would be the first of 2022 North Korea, and comes days after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to continue boosting military capability during a ruling party conference last week.

The last known North Korean missile test was a submarine-launched ballistic missile fired in October 2021. That came after 4 tests of different missile types earlier in October and September.