North Korea on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) performed its second ballistic missile test in less than a week, its neighbors said, a likely protest of the upcoming South Korea-U.S. military drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
Key Statements
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 Aug. 17 to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.
Political Context
Multiple UN Security Council 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’s high-stakes diplomacy with U.S. Experts say Kim likely hopes to use his enlarged arsenals to wrest concessions from the U.S., such as relaxing of international economic sanctions on the North.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a ballistic missile fired from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area around 6 a.m. flew more than 700 km. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday (August 12) it also spotted a suspected ballistic missile launch from North Korea.
It said South Korea remains ready to repel any provocations by North Korea in cooperation with the United States. South Korea’s Presidential national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to stop ballistic missile launches, which it said are “acts of provocation” that defy UN Security Council resolutions. It said it didn’t detect the weapon reaching Japan’s exclusive economic zone, suggesting it was believed to have fallen further away from the Japanese coast. The US and South Korea have repeatedly said their training is defensive in nature. After last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield training exercises began, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the drills showed the US and South Korea’s “will to ignite a war” and claimed they have grown more provocative than before, which has prompted North Korea to respond with “proactive and overwhelming” countermeasures.
North Korea has previously responded to the Ulchi Freedom Shield training and other major South Korea-US military exercises with provocative weapons tests and harsh rhetoric.
