North Korea launches unidentified projectile toward East Sea

BREAKING: North Korea launches an unidentified projectile toward the East Sea.

North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile toward the East Sea.

That's the extent of what we know right now, and I'm not going to pad it. The launch was detected heading toward the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, and analysts are still working out what kind of weapon it was, how far it flew, and how high it went. Those numbers usually come from Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff within hours, and you can see their headquarters here.

What we can say is the pattern. Pyongyang tends to launch when it wants attention, when it's testing something new, or both. Kim Jong Un has spent this year pushing his weapons programme forward, and every one of these launches lands on desks in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington within minutes.

Until the flight data comes in, the hardest fact is the simplest one. Something left North Korea tonight, and three governments are scrambling to figure out what.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.