These striking photos capture the major missile launches North Korea has conducted in 2017

Kyodo/Reuters

North Koreans watch a news report showing North Korea's Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile launch on electronic screen at Pyongyang station in Pyongyang, North Korea.

North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile towards Japan early Wednesday morning. The missile reached an altitude of about 2,800 miles, with initial estimates saying it will be the highest altitude reached by a North Korean missile.

In the last two decades, North Korea has launched more than 40 missiles in major provocations, with around 30 in the last two years alone.

Beginning in 1976, North Korea began developing missiles using Scud-B from the Soviet Union and launchpads from Egypt. Through the 1980's and 1990's, it began testing additional missiles, like the Rodong in 1990, and the Nodong-1 missile in 1993.

North Korea launched its first ballistic missile, the Unha-1 rocket, in 1998, and has since made significant advances both with nuclear warheads and with ballistic missiles.

There have been more than a dozen ballistic missile tests in 2017 so far, and here's what we know about each of them: