North Korea fired what could be a ballistic missile on Sunday, military officials in South Korea and Japan said, in what would be the first test in a month.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that North Korea had fired one suspected ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast from a location near Sunan, where Pyongyang’s international airport is located. The airport has been the site of missile tests, including a pair of short-range ballistic missiles fired on January 16.

The missile was fired from the Sunan area of North Korea at around 7.52 a.m. local time, the Joint Chiefs said.

The newest launch comes less than two weeks ahead of the South Korean presidential election on March 9, in which North Korea is likely to be a key electoral issue. If conservative candidate Yoon Suk Yeol is successful, analysts expect him to take a much harder line against the North compared to current President Moon Jae-in.

North Korea has ramped up its missile testing in 2022, announcing plans to bolster its defenses against the United States and evaluate "restarting all temporally suspended activities," according to state media.

In the first four weeks of 2022 alone, North Korea launched seven missile tests.