{"id":491848,"date":"2026-01-04T13:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/491848\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T13:46:13","slug":"north-korea-launches-ballistic-missiles-toward-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/491848\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea launches ballistic missiles toward sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea<\/a> launched multiple ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Sunday, its neighbors said, just hours before South Korea\u2019s president<\/a> left for China for talks expected to cover North Korea\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement it detected several ballistic missile launches from North Korea\u2019s capital region around 7:50 a.m. It said the missiles flew about 900 kilometers (560 miles) and that South Korea and U.S. authorities were analyzing details of the launches.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Defense Ministry noted the launches violated U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban any ballistic activities by North Korea. It urged North Korea to cease provocative actions immediately and respond to South Korea\u2019s push to restart talks and restore peace on the Korean Peninsula. <\/p>\n

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said that at least two missile launches by North Korea have been confirmed. \u201cThey are a serious problem, threatening the peace and security of our nation, the region and the world,\u201d Koizumi told reporters.<\/p>\n

North Korea ramps up weapons display ahead of political meet<\/p>\n

The launches were the latest weapons demonstration by North Korea in recent weeks. Experts say North Korea is aiming to show off or review its achievements in the defense sector ahead of its upcoming ruling party congress,<\/a> the first of its kind in five years. Observers are watching the Workers Party congress to see whether North Korea will set a new policy on the U.S. and resume long-stalled talks between the two countries.<\/p>\n

North Korea has been focusing on testing activities to enlarge its nuclear arsenal since its leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s summitry with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019<\/a>. Kim has also boosted his diplomatic credentials by aligning with Russia over its war in Ukraine and tightening relations with China. Observers say Kim would believe his leverage has sharply increased to wrest concessions from Trump if they sit down for talks again.<\/a><\/p>\n

North Korea hasn\u2019t announced when it will hold the congress, but South Korea\u2019s spy service said it will likely occur in January or February.<\/p>\n

Launches comes before South Korean leader\u2019s trip to China<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s launches also came hours before South Korean President Lee Jae Myung<\/a> departed for China for a summit with President Xi Jinping. During the four-day trip, Lee\u2019s office said he would request China, North Korea\u2019s major ally and biggest trading partner, to take \u201ca constructive role\u201d in efforts to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. <\/p>\n

South Korea and the U.S. have long asked China to exercise its influence on North Korea to persuade it to return to talks or give up its nuclear program. But there are questions on how big of a leverage China has on its socialist neighbor. China, together with Russia, has also repeatedly blocked the U.S.<\/a> and others\u2019 attempts to toughen economic sanctions on North Korea in recent years.<\/p>\n

Later Sunday, South Korea convened an emergency national security council meeting to discuss the North Korean missile launches. The council reported details of the launches and unspecified South Korean steps to Lee, according to the presidential office. <\/p>\n

North Korea condemns US operation in Venezuela <\/p>\n

The launches followed Saturday\u2019s dramatic U.S. military operation that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from power<\/a> and brought him to the U.S. to face narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. It represented America\u2019s most assertive action to achieve regime change in a country since the nation\u2019s 2003 invasion of Iraq. <\/p>\n

North Korea\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Sunday slammed the U.S. operation, saying it again shows \u201cthe rogue and brutal nature of the U.S.\u201d A ministry statement said it denounces the U.S. act as \u201cthe most serious form of encroachment of sovereignty.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cKim Jong Un may feel vindicated about his efforts to build a nuclear deterrent, as he likely did after Trump\u2019s strikes on Iran,\u201d said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. \u201cHowever, leaders of hostile regimes will probably live with greater paranoia after seeing how quickly Maduro was extracted from his country to stand trial in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday Kim visited a weapons factory on Saturday to review multipurpose precision guided weapons produced there. KCNA cited Kim as ordering officials to expand the current production capacity by about 2.5 times.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday, North Korea test-fired what it called long-range strategic cruise missiles<\/a>. On Dec. 25, North Korea released photos showing apparent progress in the construction of its first nuclear-powered submarine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Sunday, its neighbors…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":491849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13214,74,69,57,86,24529,30359,8132,50,92550,24240,3659,80,15243,30357,103,107,11762],"class_list":{"0":"post-491848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-government-policy","13":"tag-kim-jong-un","14":"tag-lee-jae-myung","15":"tag-military-and-defense","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nicolas-maduro","18":"tag-north-korea","19":"tag-north-korea-government","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-south-korea","22":"tag-south-korea-government","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115837140034483831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491848","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=491848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}