North Korea on Saturday fired a ballistic missile into the sea, according to its neighbors’ militaries, extending Pyongyang's streak of weapons tests this year amid a prolonged freeze in nuclear negotiations with the United States. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile fired from an area near the North Korean capital flew about 270 kilometers (168 miles) eastward at a maximum altitude of 560 kilometers (348 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. It said U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials were closely analyzing the launch. The launch was North Korea’s ninth round of weapons tests in 2022 as it continues to use a pause in diplomacy to expand its military capabilities while attempting to pressure the Biden administration for concessions. The flight details roughly matched an earlier assessment by the Japanese military and were similar to North Korea’s previous launch on Sunday that was also conducted from the area of Sunan near Pyongyang. READ: North Korea says it tested cameras for spy satellite North Korean state media said last week's launch was designed to test a camera system it plans to install on a spy satellite that is under development. Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said the latest missile likely landed outside the country’s exclusive economic zone, and that there were no immediate reports of damages to vessels. The U.S. Indo Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or that of its allies. It said the United States calls on North Korea to refrain from further destabilizing acts and is closely consulting with South Korea and Japan as well as other regional allies and partners over the launch. South Korean national security adviser Suh Hoon presided over an emergency National Security Council meeting in which members denounced North Korea’s continuation of launches that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions. The officials called for the North to refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the face of an international crisis created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and at a time when South Korea is holding a presidential election. They also vowed stronger cooperation with the United States to deal with the North Korean threat and more closely monitor the North’s nuclear and missile facilities, Seoul’s presidential office said. “The missile was fired just as the international community is responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while also in the middle of the Beijing Paralympics,” said Kishi, who canceled an appearance at a military academy graduation to respond to the launch. “This is absolutely unacceptable,” he told reporters. The launch came as South Koreans waited in long lines at polling stations Saturday morning to participate in early voting ahead of a presidential election next Wednesday. The voting follows months of bitter campaigning in which the two major candidates have clashed over whether South Korea should continue to pursue engagement with the belligerent North or take a harder line to check its nuclear threat. The North’s other tests this year included a purported hypersonic missile and its first launch since 2017 of an intermediate range missile potentially capable of reaching Guam, a major U.S. military hub in the Pacific. Analysts say North Korea could up the ante in coming months and possibly resume its testing of major weapons like intercontinental ballistic missiles as it tries to move the needle with Washington, which is now preoccupied with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and regional competition with China. READ: North Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in 6th launch in 2022 “The (Kim Jong Un) regime may be unhappy with Washington coordinating global efforts against Russian aggression in Ukraine and disappointed with Seoul’s inward focus ahead of the South Korean presidential election,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul. “But North Korea does not simply test missiles for international attention. Pyongyang’s current priorities are military modernization and domestic politics,” Easley added. During a ruling Workers Party conference called by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month, Politburo members issued a veiled threat to resume the tests of nuclear devices and ICBMs, which Kim had unilaterally suspended in 2018 to make room for diplomacy with then-President Donald Trump. But negotiations remain derailed after the collapse of Trump and Kim’s second meeting in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities. The Biden administration has offered open-ended talks with Pyongyang but shown no willingness to offer badly needed economic benefits unless the North takes real steps to cut down its nuclear weapons and missile program. The North’s claim that it is testing camera systems for spy satellites suggests it could possibly conduct a banned long-range rocket test disguised as a space launch to advance its weaponry and apply more pressure on Washington. Some analysts predict that North Korea will launch a rocket carrying a satellite ahead of a major political anniversary in April, the birthday of state founder Kim Il Sung, the late grandfather of Kim Jong Un.

The difficulty finding coronavirus test kits in many parts of California and delays in getting results are causing increasing frustration and contributing to the surge of infections that in just two weeks more than doubled the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19. Negative test results can be a necessity for any number of activities, from going to work to boarding an airplane or attending a sporting event. Delays in getting results — or inability to find a test kit — can mean people with very mild or no symptoms may presume they are not infected and go about their usual routines. “If you are tested and you’re positive then you know you need to isolate," said Abraar Karan, an infectious diseases doctor at Stanford University. “If you can’t get tested, and you don’t have the luxury to just quarantine without knowing, sure, you may have people going out and infecting others." READ: Coronavirus testing facility to be expanded to all districts: Minister  The surge of cases in California has led to a soaring demand for tests that in many places simply can’t be found. Some county mail-in testing programs have been halted due to exploding demand. In places where tests are available, people sometimes have to wait in line for several hours. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that he is activating the California National Guard to add testing sites and boost capacity. More than 200 guard members are being deployed to 50 sites to help with clinical staffing and crowd control, the governor said. There's also been a lag in obtaining test results. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an epidemiology professor at University of California, San Francisco’s medical school, said she heard one lab was taking nine days to return results — longer than someone exposed to COVID-19 may have to quarantine. “If you are trying to do the right thing, and you decided to wait in line to get a test, having a long time to get actionable information is not helpful,” she said. “It’s sort of absurd.” Some people have resorted to paying $100 or more for a rapid result — something many can’t afford. Shane Hirschman, a 36-year-old from San Clemente, said he ordered a mail-in test kit from the Orange County health agency last week but never received one. When he started feeling sick this week, he said he couldn’t find an at-home kit in stores and testing appointments at nearby pharmacies were booked. He wound up paying nearly $100 for a rapid test to confirm he didn’t have the variant. “They’ve had a year and a half to sort this out and it shouldn’t be like this,” he said. “I don’t feel like I can pay 100 bucks every day.” In Los Angeles County, where a quarter of the state's nearly 40 million people live, overwhelming demand prompted a temporary halt to a program that allowed people to test at home and mail back their sample. Public health director Barbara Ferrer said she hopes the testing crunch will ease in coming days. In the meantime, she urged restraint. “Please don’t decide that because you didn’t get tested, you don’t have COVID and you don’t have to stay home if you’ve got symptoms," she said. “We do ask while we’re trying to increase testing capacity and make it much easier for everyone who need to test to get a test that you please stay home while you’re symptomatic." California, like the rest of the country, has been overtaken by the omicron variant, which spreads more easily than other coronavirus strains. It also more easily infects those who have been vaccinated or had previously been infected by prior versions of the virus, though it appears less likely to cause severe illness. Since Christmas, more than 5,000 people in California have been admitted to hospitals with COVID. In many cases, they went in for something else and only learned they were infected upon testing. State models used to forecast the impact of the virus show that within a month California could have a record 23,000 people in hospitals with COVID-19. Orange County, the state's third most populous with more than 3 million residents, is among a growing number of places where hospitals are becoming strained by the flood of COVID patients coupled with a high number of nurses and other workers who are not on the job because they are infected or quarantined due to exposure to the virus. READ: Kit shortage forces Cumilla hospital to suspend coronavirus testing Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the county’s deputy health officer, said many hospitals have resorted to using tents to triage patients, something not seen since a year ago when the state was in the throes of its deadliest surge. Ambulances are waiting nearly an hour to drop off patients. “It is a dire situation right now,” she said.

Health officials confronted tough questions and doubts Thursday about testing to intercept the fast-spreading virus, with scrutiny focused on a four-day delay in screening an infected California woman despite her doctors' early calls to do so.