{"id":118160,"date":"2026-08-13T13:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/118160\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T13:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:04:32","slug":"north-korea-conducts-second-ballistic-missile-test-in-less-than-a-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/118160\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea conducts second ballistic missile test in less than a week"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korea<\/a> on Wednesday performed its second ballistic missile test<\/a> in less than a week, its neighbours said, a likely protest of the upcoming South Korea-US military<\/a> drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

South Korea<\/a>\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a ballistic missile fired from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area around 6am flew more than 700 kilometres (435 miles). The Japanese Defence Ministry also detected the launch, saying the weapon landed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone, between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.<\/p>\n

The launches, within days of each other, were seen as part of North Korea\u2019s extended run of weapons<\/a> tests as the country has refused to return to talks with the US<\/a> and South Korea for years. Experts say North Korea often uses its rivals\u2019 military training as a pretext to boost its own testing activities.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s military said it remains ready to repel any provocation by Pyongyang<\/a> in cooperation with the United States. South Korea’s national security council called North Korean ballistic missile launches \u201cacts of provocation\u201d and urged the North to halt them immediately.<\/p>\n

Read moreZelensky accuses Russia of using North Korean missiles in deadly attack<\/a><\/p>\n

Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that Japan<\/a> strongly protested the North Korean launch through their embassies in Beijing. \u201cIt\u2019s a serious problem that affects the safety of the Japanese people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The latest launch came two days after South Korea and the United States announced they will kick off their annual large-scale military drills on August 17 to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.<\/p>\n

North Korea<\/a> has previously responded to the Ulchi Freedom Shield training and other major South Korea-US military exercises with provocative weapons tests and harsh rhetoric. The US and South Korea have repeatedly said their training is defensive in nature.<\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s Ulchi Freedom Shield training exercises began, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un<\/a> said the drills showed the US and South Korea’s \u201cwill to ignite a war\u201d and claimed they have grown more provocative than before, which has prompted North Korea to respond with \u201cproactive and overwhelming\u201d countermeasures.<\/p>\n

Read moreUS walks out of UN Security Council meeting as France condemns rights vote<\/a><\/p>\n

On August 6, South Korea, the US and Japan detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile from North Korea in what was the North\u2019s first ballistic weapons testing activity since late June. North Korea didn\u2019t confirm the reported launch, though it usually releases details of weapons tests a day later.<\/p>\n

Multiple UN Security Council<\/a> resolutions ban North Korea from launching ballistic missiles. But North Korea has ramped up ballistic and other weapons testing activities to expand its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim\u2019s high-stakes diplomacy with US President Donald Trump<\/a> fell apart in 2019. Experts say Kim likely hopes to use his enlarged arsenals to wrest concessions from the US, such as relaxing international economic sanctions<\/a> on the North.<\/p>\n

Watch moreXi meeting ‘was a success for Kim Jong Un’, expert says<\/a><\/p>\n

In recent years, Kim has boosted his diplomatic footprint by strengthening cooperation with Russia<\/a> by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine<\/a>. He’s also recently taken steps to bolster ties with China<\/a>, the country’s traditional ally and economic pipeline. Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/a> visited the North Korean capital Pyongyang in June<\/a> for the first time in seven years.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Korea on Wednesday performed its second ballistic missile test in less than a week, its neighbours said,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[198,890,141,31,34,20243,2447,129,3815],"class_list":["post-118160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-asia-pacific","tag-japan","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-korea","tag-north-korea","tag-nuclear-north-korea","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-pyongyang","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}