North Korea launches suspected ballistic missile, South Korea says

North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile off its east coast early Thursday, South Korea’s military said, days after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to bolster his nuclear weapons capabilities exponentially and prepare his troops for combat.

Japan’s Coast Guard said the missile has likely already fallen, and Japanese broadcaster NHK said the projectile appears to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, citing Japanese defense ministry sources it did not identify.

Multiple missiles were launched from an area near Pyongyang toward waters off the nation’s east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Further details including the exact range of the missile were not immediately available.

The latest firing came as senior defense officials from around the globe, including from the U.S. and Japan, gathered in Seoul for a two-day security dialogue that began Wednesday. Pyongyang has sought to counter South Korea’s moves to strengthen its defense partnership with the U.S. and Japan after the three nations signed a pact on military training in July, an accord that built on a major trilateral summit hosted by President Joe Biden at Camp David in August of 2023.

The incident marked North Korea’s first missile launch in over two months after Kim’s regime shot off two ballistic missiles that it said could carry 4.5 ton-class super-large warheads on July 1. South Korea’s military said one of those missiles encountered trouble in flight and disappeared from radar after flying about 120 kilometers (75 miles) — indicating a failed test.

On June 26, North Korea claimed it successfully conducted a test of a multiple warhead missile system. Seoul said the launch failed and accused Kim’s regime of using “deception and exaggeration” to cover up a missile that exploded in the early stages of flight.

Pyongyang has fired more than 30 ballistic missiles and one space rocket so far this year, exceeding its total from 2023. The tally is still short of the more than 70 ballistic missiles tested in 2022 — a record for the state.

North Korea may be considering a nuclear test near the time of the November U.S. presidential election to raise its profile, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s national security adviser Shin Wonsik said in July, when he was serving as defense minister.

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