{"id":322931,"date":"2025-10-22T04:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/322931\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T04:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:34:14","slug":"north-korea-fires-ballistic-missiles-in-first-such-test-in-5-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/322931\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea fires ballistic missiles in first such test in 5 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea performed its first ballistic missile tests in five months Wednesday, days before U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> and other leaders are expected to meet in South Korea. <\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s military said it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles that were launched from an area south of Pyongyang and flew about 350 kilometers (220 miles) toward the northeast. The South\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn\u2019t release more specific flight details but said the missiles didn\u2019t land in the sea. <\/p>\n

The Joint Chiefs added that the South\u2019s military remains ready to repel any provocations by North Korea based on its solid military alliance with the United States. <\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a> told reporters that Tokyo was closely communicating with Washington and Seoul, including by sharing real-time missile warning data. North Korea didn\u2019t immediately comment on the launches. <\/p>\n

Trump is to leave for Asia at the end of the week in the first trip to the region of his second term. He plans to go to Malaysia first for a regional summit, and then head to Japan before travelling on to South Korea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, an annual summit meant to promote economic integration and trade.<\/p>\n

Trump was expected to visit the South Korean city of Gyeongju ahead of the summit for bilateral meetings<\/a> with leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, but South Korean officials say Trump won\u2019t likely attend APEC\u2019s main conference set for Oct. 30-Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

Experts earlier said North Korea could conduct provocative missile tests before or during the APEC summit to underscore its commitment to gain recognition as a nuclear weapons state. Experts say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would need that status to call for the U.N. to lift the economic sanctions punishing it for its weapons program.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s ballistic missile launches by North Korea were the first of their kind since the country on May 8 tested short-range systems that simulated nuclear counterstrikes against U.S. and South Korean forces. They were also North Korea\u2019s first ballistic missile testing activities since Lee took office in June with a promise to push to restore peace<\/a> on the Korean Peninsula.<\/p>\n

Kim has been sharply accelerating the pace of weapons tests since his high-stakes nuclear diplomacy<\/a> with Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over the U.S.-led economic sanctions. But last month, Kim suggested he could return to talks<\/a> if the U.S. drops its demand for North Korea\u2019s denuclearization, after Trump repeatedly expressed his hopes for new diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Kim displayed a new intercontinental ballistic missile<\/a> at a military parade attended by Chinese, Russian and other top officials. The parade highlighted Kim\u2019s growing diplomatic footing and his relentless drive to build a reliable arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the U.S. and its allies. <\/p>\n

North Korea\u2019s state media said the Oct. 10 parade featured the Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it described as the country\u2019s \u201cmost powerful nuclear strategic weapon system.\u201d Observers said the new ICBM is designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat U.S. missile defenses and that North Korea could test-launch it in coming months. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea performed its first ballistic missile tests in five months Wednesday, days…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":322932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3774,13214,63036,13212,69,57,170,30358,24529,30359,8132,50,24240,3659,80,15243,30357,161370,103,107,11762],"class_list":{"0":"post-322931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-asia-pacific","10":"tag-asia-pacific-economic-cooperation","11":"tag-china-government","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-japan","15":"tag-joint-chiefs-of-staff","16":"tag-kim-jong-un","17":"tag-lee-jae-myung","18":"tag-military-and-defense","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-north-korea","21":"tag-north-korea-government","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-south-korea","24":"tag-south-korea-government","25":"tag-weapons-testing","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news","28":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115415958705742941","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}