Overview
- South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff detected several missiles launched from near Pyongyang at about 7:50 a.m. local time, with flights of roughly 900 kilometers into the East Sea before splashdown.
- Japan reported at least two projectiles and issued an emergency alert, later assessing estimated ranges of about 900 and 950 kilometers with no damage reported.
- Seoul convened an emergency security meeting and condemned the launches as violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, while South Korea, the United States and Japan heightened surveillance and shared intelligence.
- U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it was consulting closely with allies and assessed no immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory or allies.
- The timing overlapped with President Lee Jae Myung’s state visit to China, and followed North Korean state media reports that Kim inspected a weapons plant and ordered a 250 percent expansion of tactical guided-weapons production, with some analysts suggesting the U.S. operation in Venezuela influenced the timing.