North Korea Fires Multiple Cruise Missiles After US, South Korea End Joint Drills

A South Korean soldier (R) stands next to a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on July 22, 2023. Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images

North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Saturday, according to the South Korean military, just two days after the United States and South Korea ended their 11-day joint drills.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the launches occurred at around 4 a.m. (local time), but details of the launch are not yet available as analysis is still ongoing, Yonhap News Agency reported.

“While strengthening our monitoring and vigilance, our military is maintaining a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States,” the South Korean military told reporters in a text message.

South Korea’s National Security Council immediately called for an emergency meeting following the North Korean missile launches.

This came just two days after the United States and South Korea wrapped up their 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise, during which at least one U.S. long-range B1-B bomber flew over the Korean Peninsula.

A day before the joint drill ended, North Korea fired two tactical ballistic missiles on Aug. 30 in simulations of “scorched earth” nuclear strikes targeting major command centers in South Korea.

South Korea’s and Japan’s assessments of the missile tests suggest the two tactical missiles traveled close to 250 miles at a maximum altitude of 30 miles high before landing in the waters between Korea and Japan.

“While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK’s illicit weapons program,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea has said that its missile tests were a response to the U.S.-South Korea joint drills, which it views as an invasion rehearsal, although the United States has repeatedly said that they were defensive in nature.

On Aug. 29, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed that his country’s navy would become “a component of the state nuclear deterrence,” implying that Pyongyang would deploy nuclear weapons to the navy.

He condemned the growing trilateral military cooperation between the United States, Japan, and South Korea, accusing them of turning the Korean Peninsula into “the world’s biggest war hardware concentration spot” through their joint military drills.

In this handout image released by the South Korean Defense Ministry, South Korean Navy's destroyer Yulgok Yi I (front), U.S. Navy's USS Benfold (middle), and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's JS Atago (top) sail in formation during a joint naval exercise in international waters on April 17, 2023, at an undisclosed location. South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images

The three allied nations conducted a trilateral ballistic missile defense exercise—involving guided-missile destroyers USS Benfold, Japan’s JS Haguro, and South Korea’s Yulgok Yi I—in the East China Sea on Aug. 29.

‘Increasingly Severe Security Environment’

Japan’s Defense Ministry said they aim to enhance trilateral cooperation in responding to regional security threats, given the “increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan.”

“North Korea’s ballistic missile test launch seriously threatens peace and security of Japan, East Asia, and the international community, and is totally unacceptable,” the ministry said in a statement.

Since the beginning of 2022, North Korea has carried out more than 100 weapons tests, many of which have involved nuclear-capable missiles designed to strike the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

North Korea’s testing spree has forced the United States and South Korea to expand their drills, resume trilateral training involving Japan, and enhance “regular visibility” of U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula.

In July, the United States deployed a nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea for the first time in four decades.

Andrew Thornebrooke and The Associated Press contributed to this report.