North Korea fires about 10 missiles toward sea, Seoul says

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North Korea fired about 10 ballistic missiles toward the eastern sea on Saturday, Seoul said, staging what it described as a show of force as South Korea held joint military exercises with the United States. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches came from an area in Sunan, the site of Pyongyang’s international airport, and that the missiles flew about 350 kilometers toward the sea.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the weapons landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that there were no reports of damage to planes or ships, according to his remarks carried by South Korean and Japanese officials. South Korea said it has increased surveillance and is maintaining readiness against the possibility of additional launches.

The missile launches arrived as the United States and South Korea conducted their annual springtime exercises involving thousands of troops. Those drills, which include command post training, are part of the “Freedom Shield” exercise that runs through March 19, according to the AP report, and are accompanied by a field training program called “Warrior Shield.”

The AP report said North Korea has long described the allied exercises as invasion rehearsals and often uses them as a pretext to dial up its own military demonstrations or weapons testing. In previous years, North Korea has carried out salvo launches of missiles or artillery, describing them as simulations of nuclear attacks against targets in South Korea.

The launches also landed amid broader regional anxieties tied to the war in the Middle East, the AP report said. Local media, citing security camera footage and other images, have speculated that the United States may be relocating some missile defense assets stationed in South Korea to support operations against Iran.

When asked by The Associated Press this week whether U.S. Forces Korea was moving interceptor missiles from its THAAD system in Seongju to the Middle East, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s office said it could not confirm details about U.S. military operations. The office said any potential relocation of U.S. assets would not affect the allies’ defense posture against a nuclear-armed North Korea, and it pointed to South Korea’s conventional military strength.

The AP report said the same office earlier gave a similar response to reports about possible Patriot missile defense system relocations from South Korea. That backdrop intersected with South Korean efforts to pursue diplomacy with Pyongyang: hours before Saturday’s launches, South Korea’s Prime Minister Kim Min-seok met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington and expressed hope for renewed dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

The AP report said Lee is seeking improved inter-Korean relations, and that some of his top officials have said Trump’s expected visit to China starting March 31 may create an opening with North Korea. On Saturday, however, North Korea’s missile launch activity appeared to undercut those diplomatic hopes, with the AP report describing it as signaling defiance.

North Korea’s sister of leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Yo Jong, had criticized Washington and Seoul earlier in the week, warning that their drills undermined regional stability at a time when the global security structure is “collapsing rapidly and wars break out in different parts of the world due to the reckless acts of outrageous international rogues.” Kim Yo Jong said the U.S.-South Korea exercises threatened the North’s safety, and the report said North Korea’s Foreign Ministry also issued statements denouncing joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and expressing support for Tehran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

North Korea has repeatedly rejected calls by Washington and Seoul to resume diplomacy aimed at winding down its nuclear program, the AP report said. Talks derailed in 2019 after the collapse of Kim Jong-un’s second summit with Trump during the first term of the U.S. president, and Kim has since made Russia a priority in his foreign policy, including sending thousands of troops and military equipment to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, the report added.