North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Toward East Sea Ahead of Ulchi Freedom Shield Drills

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea, with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff saying it was launched from the Wonsan area at around 6 a.m. and flew more than 700 kilometers (435 miles).

“South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile flew more than 700km (435 miles).”

Al Jazeera

Japan’s Defence Ministry detected the launch and said the weapon landed in waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, according to the reports cited by Al Jazeera and AP.

ABC News

The launch came as South Korea and the United States planned their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills starting on August 17, with the drills described as defensive by the allies.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched at around 6:00 am [21:00 GMT Tuesday] and that it flew more than 700km (435 miles), while Japan’s Defence Ministry said the suspected ballistic missile had “already fallen” without further details.

In the same period, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it detected the launch and that “this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies,” as reported by UPI.

Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi condemned the launch, saying North Korea’s weapons tests “threaten the peace and security of our country, the region, and the international community,” as UPI reported.

Koizumi also said Japan strongly protested the launch through diplomatic channels in Beijing, and AP reported his line that “It’s a serious problem that affects the safety of the Japanese people.”

Al Jazeera

South Korea’s national security council called North Korean ballistic missile launches “acts of provocation” and urged Pyongyang to halt them immediately, according to AP.

Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, told AFP that “This is a message that Pyongyang is closely watching the upcoming drills and could stage a provocation if it deems one necessary,” as quoted by Al Jazeera.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield training was set to start on Monday and run for 11 days, with South Korea’s military saying 18,000 South Korean soldiers would take part, according to Al Jazeera.

South Korea said it boosted its surveillance posture and closely exchanged information on the launch with Washington and Tokyo, while Japan’s Defence Ministry said the suspected ballistic missile had “already fallen,” as described by Al Jazeera.

“already fallen”

Al Jazeera

The launch was also framed as part of North Korea’s extended run of weapons tests, with AP saying the launches within days of each other were seen as a likely protest of the upcoming South Korea-U.S. military drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.

AP reported that South Korea’s military said it remains ready to repel any provocation by Pyongyang in cooperation with the United States, and that the latest launch came two days after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected a short-range ballistic missile on August 6.

Al Jazeera added that the launch was Pyongyang’s 11th suspected ballistic missile test in 2026, according to South Korean assessments, and noted that North Korea did not confirm the reported launch.

The consequences also extended beyond the peninsula, with Al Jazeera reporting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow used a North Korean ballistic missile during an attack that killed seven workers at a Ukrainian steel plant in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.