they're also believed to have been musudans. south korea's military calls the launches provocative and the officials say they're preparing for more. >>> tuesday's missile is believed to be the latest type of musudan, the land-based version of a russian submarine missile. north korea acquired the technology in the early '90s. north korea first displayed the musudan at a milt parade in 2010 held to commemorate the anniversary of the workers'party. the missile has been estimated range of 2500 to 4,000 kilometers and is considered capable of reaching all parts of japan as well as the u.s. territory of guam. experts think this type of missile is fired from a mobile launcher instead of a stationary facility. that makes it difficult for traditional observers to detect signs of an impending launch. >>> in what may be related. nhk learned a senior north korean official arrived at the airport. he is vice chairman of the ruling party's party and the former foreign minister. multiple diplomatic sources say he'll meet with communist party le

but the assumption here is from the local media that it was a musudan, a medium-range missile. in april, north korea attempted to launch that missile and failed. so potentially this is the fourth time in two months it's not managed to test-fire that missile. but certainly everyone in the region is concerned that these tests continue to happen. we had had a relatively peaceful and quiet may when it comes to testing. certainly we had the congress in north korea, the political focus took over. but now it appears we are back to what kim jong-un feels is a very important part of his rule, which is continuing to test his capabili capabilities, continuing to improve his missile program, once again showing that he has no intention of putting nuclear missile programs to one side in violation of u.n. security council resolutions. now, certainly south korea and japan are watching developments very closely. in japan, the chief cabinet secretary reacted earlier this tuesday. >> translator: there is no missile confirmed to have flown towards japan, so we don't recognize it as something that