North Korea launched multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday just days after Pyongyang rejected overtures for revived diplomacy with the United States.
North Korea launched two missiles roughly three hours apart. Both missiles flew more than 200 miles before landing in the sea off the North’s eastern shore, according to the South Korean military.
South Korea’s presidential office held an emergency national security council meeting to discuss the launch. South Korea’s military said it is ready to repel any provocations by the North under a solid alliance with the U.S.
The Japanese Defense Ministry suspected a launch in the earlier hours on Sunday as well, but said that missile did not land in its territory. It did not clarify where the missile landed.
The series of launches comes after Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and senior official, earlier shrugged off President Trump’s overtures to her brother. Mr. Trump scaled back joint military drills and exercises with allies in the region.
Ms. Kim said shortening the drills did not change the “provocative, aggressive nature” of the training exercises the U.S. regularly conducts with South Korean forces.
She said “regular U.S.-led war rehearsals” are the main source of growing tension on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.
Mr. Kim has been focusing on expanding his nuclear arsenal after his earlier high-stakes diplomacy with the first Trump administration collapsed in 2019.
When Mr. Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with South Korea, the American president cited what he called a good relationship with Mr. Kim.
The North Korean leader’s deepening ties with Russia over the course of the war in Ukraine have emboldened Pyongyang, analysts say.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said in July that the threat of as many as 30,000 troops being sent by North Korea to fight for Russia is one of the top threats his country is tracking.
Mr. Kim continues to reaffirm North Korea’s status as a nuclear-armed state and push for recognition of that fact as a matter of international diplomacy.
The U.S. is coordinating with South Korea and Japan to analyze the details of the missile launch, according to the Japanese Ministry of Defense.
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
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