A failed ballistic missile launch sparked panic in a usually quiet South Korean city after it crashed into the ground and triggered a huge fire, officials said.
Security allies Seoul and Washington have staged multiple joint drills, including bombing runs and missile launches, in response to North Korea firing an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) over Japan on Tuesday.
The South Korean military fired a Hyunmoo-2 short-range ballistic missile late Tuesday but it malfunctioned and crashed shortly after launch.
The missile's propellant caught fire but its warhead did not detonate, a South Korean military official told the Yonhap news agency.
Viral social media footage - which AFP could not verify - showed an orange ball of flames at an area users said was near an air force base close to Gangneung on the country's east coast.
"Many frantic residents called the city hall," an official at the Gangneung City Hall told AFP.
"At first we didn't know what was going on because we didn't receive any notice from the military about such training," she added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
South and North Korea remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Armed conflicts between the two neighbours are rare, but the missile crash made some residents believe that war had broken out.
"I thought there was a war but it turns out to be a military training," said one user on Twitter.
"What took them so long to confirm? If there is a war, we will probably find out about it the next day," another user tweeted.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said there were no reported casualties and that it was looking into the cause of the crash.
Nuclear-armed North Korea fired an Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) over Japan for the first time in five years on Tuesday, prompting Tokyo to issue evacuation warnings for some residents.
South Korea and the United States staged a drill of their own in response, firing ground-to-ground missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, Seoul's military said.
The joint drills aim to "make sure that we have the military capabilities at the ready to respond to provocations by the North if it comes to that," US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN.
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South Korea's military also announced Wednesday that the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier would return to the area, having already conducted joint drills with Seoul's navy last month.
Pyongyang's Tuesday launch is part of a record year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by the isolated regime, which recently revised its nuclear laws, with leader Kim Jong Un declaring his country an "irreversible" nuclear power.
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decried the launch "in the strongest terms" while South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called it a "provocation".
The United Nations Security Council was set to meet on Wednesday (local time) to discuss the matter.
"Regardless of today's missile launch by the US and South Korean military, North Korea's plan to carry out its next nuclear test will not change," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.
"It's likely that Pyongyang's going to ridicule today's missile launch -- especially since one of the launches failed -- and proceed with their next nuclear test, given the law changes they made on the nuclear use in September."
The Tuesday test was Pyongyang's fifth missile launch in 10 days.
The spate of launches comes as Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have been ramping up joint military drills to counter Pyongyang's growing threats, staging the first trilateral anti-submarine drills in five years on Friday.
That came just days after the US and South Korean navies conducted large-scale exercises.
Such drills infuriate North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.
US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Seoul last week and toured the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, on a trip to underscore her country's commitment to South Korea's defence.
About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea to help protect it from the North.
South Korean and US officials have been warning for months that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test, saying last week that this could happen soon after Pyongyang's key ally China holds a Communist Party congress from October 16.
Pyongyang has tested nuclear weapons six times since 2006, most recently in 2017.
