North Korea fires ballistic missiles, ramps up pressure on US

Seoul: North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Sunday, South Korea’s military said, stepping up weapons tests despite a recent US decision to scale back joint drills with Seoul in a bid to revive diplomacy with Pyongyang.

The pair of launches, carried out about three hours apart from the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, sent one missile roughly 450 km and the other more than 600 km towards North Korea’s eastern waters before they splashed down, according to South Korean defence officials.

Seoul’s presidential office called on Pyongyang to immediately stop ballistic missile tests, which are prohibited under UN Security Council resolutions. The South’s military said it was maintaining a high state of readiness to counter any provocation, backed by its alliance with the United States. Japan’s Defence Ministry said it had detected a suspected North Korean missile but confirmed it did not fall within Japanese territorial waters.

The latest firing came days after senior North Korean officials threatened to strengthen the country’s nuclear deterrent and respond to what they described as US hostility. Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un and a key policy voice, had earlier dismissed US President Donald Trump’s move to trim the scale of the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with South Korea, saying it did not alter the drills’ “provocative, aggressive nature”.

Following that warning, North Korea carried out a volley of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles towards the sea, appearing to follow through on an earlier threat to react to the US–South Korean manoeuvres. On Friday, Kim Yo Jong also condemned a recent US-led multilateral naval exercise, dubbed “Pacific Vanguard”, as a “frantic military move” aimed at prolonging American dominance in the Asia-Pacific. The drill involved the US, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

She argued that repeated US-led “war rehearsals” were the main driver of rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the wider region. “Our will to defend our sovereignty will be expressed in clearer action, and there will never be a change in the course of intensifying the nuclear war deterrence,” she said.

Earlier this month, Pyongyang conducted what it described as a joint live-fire exercise involving missiles, artillery and drones, a day after the United States, South Korea and Japan concluded a five-day trilateral drill that North Korea labelled a provocation. The North said its own exercise featured the simultaneous launch of different weapon types, likely aimed at practising ways to overwhelm South Korean and US air defences.

Prospects for renewed US–North Korea talks remain uncertain. Kim Jong Un has focused on expanding his nuclear arsenal since high-level diplomacy with Trump broke down in 2019. When Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, he pointed to what he called a good personal relationship with Kim, who has long described such drills as invasion rehearsals.

Analysts say Kim, buoyed by a growing nuclear stockpile and closer ties with Russia and China, may believe he now holds more leverage in any fresh round of negotiations with Washington. Earlier this year, Kim suggested he could return to talks if the US abandoned what he termed its “hostile policy” and accepted the North’s status as a nuclear weapons state.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, a liberal who favours engagement with the North, said on Friday that restarting US–North Korea dialogue would be “an important starting point” for improving peace prospects on the peninsula. “What is clear is that President Trump wants dialogue, and I’ve also been encouraging President Trump to seek dialogue” with Kim, Lee told reporters.

(Inputs from AP)