North Korea test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile early Saturday local time that it claims can maneuver at low altitude to slip past South Korean and Japanese missile defenses, the latest in a run of weapons displays as President Donald Trump tries to restart talks with leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim watched the launch in person, state media reported Sunday. The Korean Central News Agency said the missile flew northeast and struck a target 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles) away, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. State media photos showed Kim at the launch site with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, and his daughter, Kim Ju Ae.
The North’s neighbors tracked a shorter flight. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was fired from the Wonsan area on the North’s east coast and flew more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) before landing in the sea. Japan’s Defense Ministry estimated about 680 kilometers (422 miles) and a peak altitude of roughly 56 miles (90 kilometers), Stars and Stripes reported. The ministry said the missile came down outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone with no reported damage to ships or aircraft, and Tokyo lodged a protest with Pyongyang.
Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s influential sister, announced the launch on Saturday, an unusually quick disclosure. She described the weapon as strategic, a word that implies a nuclear role, and claimed it can alter its path at low altitude and uses unspecified artificial intelligence features. She said the mismatch between Seoul’s and Tokyo’s figures showed neither ally could follow the missile. South Korea’s military frequently accuses the North of overstating its weapons’ capabilities.
US and allies respond
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the launch “does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies.” Officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan said Saturday that the North’s ballistic missile launches violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, Fox News reported. South Korea’s presidential national security office urged Pyongyang to stop its repeated launches, and the South’s military said it had stepped up surveillance and was sharing information with Washington and Tokyo.
Sydney Seiler, a former U.S. national intelligence officer for North Korea who is now a nonresident senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital that intermediate-range missiles, which he said fly roughly 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers, can put Guam, parts of Alaska and Japan within the North’s reach. Because such a launch takes extensive preparation, Seiler said, it was unlikely to be mainly a response to anything Trump had said or done in recent days.
Hours after the launch, Trump told a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio, “I get along great with Kim Jong Un.” In August, Trump scaled back a major joint military exercise with South Korea in what the AP described as an apparent bid to restart diplomacy. North Korea has dismissed the gesture. It demands that the United States end what it calls a “hostile policy,” its term for U.S.-led sanctions and joint drills with Seoul, and stop insisting on denuclearization before any talks.
Kim has shunned negotiations with the United States and South Korea since his nuclear diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. He has turned instead to Russia, supplying troops and weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Tensions along the border
The launch came a day after Kim Yo Jong called “utterly pathetic” South Korea’s demand for an apology over Sept. 21 land mine blasts just south of the border that wounded three South Korean soldiers. Seoul says North Korean mines caused the blasts, citing a joint inspection it carried out with the U.S.-led United Nations Command. The command later found the North had breached the 1953 armistice after an unexploded North Korean anti-personnel mine was found near the site, Stars and Stripes reported, adding that the command’s review of the two mines that went off is still underway. North Korea denies responsibility and has threatened to retaliate if South Korean troops fire on its soldiers working along the border.
Saturday’s test followed a Sept. 20 launch of two ballistic missiles from Wonsan, which state media described as a test of a new hypersonic weapon system. In recent weeks the North has also staged live-fire drills and commissioned a new warship.
What to watch
Experts cited by Yonhap said the weapon may have been the Hwasong-16B, a hypersonic intermediate-range missile. Seiler noted that North Korea has not launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, the type that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland, in almost two years. South Korea’s military says it is watching for further launches. Trump has recently signaled he is open to a phone call with Kim, Seiler said, but Pyongyang has shown no public interest in talks.
