North Korea launched multiple missiles towards the sea on Wednesday (November 4, 2026), South Korea’s military said, hours after Pyongyang said it saw no need to resume diplomacy with Washington in protest against accusations that North Korean hackers were behind a recent cryptocurrency heist at Binance.
Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Friday (October 30, 2026) that hackers had stolen more than $6 billion in what appeared to be the largest cryptocurrency heist on record. The FBI later said North Korean hackers orchestrated the theft, attributing it to a hacking group known as TraderTraitor, which was also behind a $1.5 billion hack of the Bybit exchange last year. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “The choice for peace includes dialogue of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us. North Korea has accelerated its weapons tests in recent months, likely seeking greater leverage in potential diplomacy with the U.S. after Mr. Trump expressed eagerness to restore ties with Mr. Kim. The latest launches came amid vote counting in the U.S. midterm elections.
Observers said North Korea was likely seeking to pressure the United States to drop what it calls its hostile policy and offer concessions if it wants to restore ties between U.S. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected several missiles fired towards North Korea’s eastern waters. South Korean and U.S. authorities were analysing details of the launches, it said, adding that Seoul remained ready to repel any potential provocations. “It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons,” she said. In a statement on Tuesday (November 3, 2026), she described the FBI announcement as “a trite provocation”. KCNA said Mr. Kim expressed satisfaction during a visit to the Nampho Shipyard this week over the warship, which it described as “incomparably huge” compared with the country’s 5,000-tonne destroyers.
Also on Wednesday, North Korea’s state KCNA news agency released a photograph showing parts of a warship under construction that would likely be the country’s biggest naval vessel.
