South Korea’s army said that a North Korean missile test conducted on Wednesday was likely a failure. This comes just days after the U.S. sent an aircraft carrier to South Korea for a trilateral military exercise with Japan and South Korea.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea said in a press release that North Korea fired a ballistic rocket from its capital around 5:30 am on Wednesday. The missile was reportedly launched towards the eastern waters of the North, but it was believed that the launch had failed.

The report did not provide any further information, such as whether the missile was likely to have crashed or exploded mid-air. Japan’s Defense Ministry announced earlier Wednesday that they had also detected a suspected North Korean ballistic missile.

South Korea reported that North Korea had launched huge balloons carrying trash over the border on a second day in a row. South Korea had earlier threatened to respond with anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt landed in South Korea Saturday, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol boarding the carrier on February 2nd – the first South Korean sitting president to board an American aircraft carrier since 1994.

Yoon told American troops and South Koreans on the carrier their alliance was the strongest in the world and could defeat any enemy. Yoon said that the U.S. aircraft carrier will leave for a South Korea, U.S., and Japan drill, called “Freedom Edge”, on Wednesday. The drill is designed to sharpen the combined response of the countries in different areas, such as air, sea, and cyberspace.

Kim Kang Il is the vice minister of defense for North Korea. He called Monday’s U.S. aircraft carriers deployment “reckless and dangerous.” North Korea had previously called major U.S. South Korean drills invasion rehearsals, and responded with missile tests.

Officials in South Korea said that the arrival of the carrier would help Seoul deal with North Korea’s growing nuclear threat and its military alliances with Russia.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, agreed to a deal that requires each country to offer aid in case of an attack and pledged to increase other forms of cooperation. Observers claim that the agreement represents the strongest relationship between the two nations since the end Cold War.

In exchange for military and economic aid, the United States and their partners believe that North Korea provided Russia with much needed conventional weapons for its war against Ukraine.

Kim Jong Un, on May 30, supervised the firing multiple nuclear-capable rocket launchers in order to simulate an attack on South Korea. The drill was conducted just days after North Korea failed to launch its second spy satellite, as the rocket that carried it exploded in mid-air shortly after takeoff.