On 29 October, Japan’s Defense Ministry announced that North Korea had launched a missile that may be ballistic and that had already fallen into the East Sea, Japan’s authorities said in a statement reported by Kyodo News.
Around the same time, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that North Korea fired roughly a dozen short‑range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea, according to several Yonhap reports.
Yonhap added that the missiles traveled about 250 km, were detected by satellite and ground sensors, and that none caused damage or casualties, a detail repeated across multiple South Korean military statements.
This latest launch follows previous tests, including one on 12 October when North Korea fired multiple tactical ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area in response to South Korea’s hypersonic missile test, a pattern noted by the Joint Chiefs.
Observers note that the six North Korean launch sites around the Wonsan area have been targeted by U.S. and South Korean surveillance drones for weeks, with the latest readings confirming the direction and altitude of the 12 missiles.
Japan’s government urged its Coast Guard to monitor any fallen objects and advised ships to avoid approaching them, according to a report from Anadolu Agency linking the incident to Tokyo’s statement.
No damage or casualties were reported from the north‑south coast region, and both U.S. and South Korean forces monitored the flight pattern with airborne early‑warning radar, per the South Korean defense ministry.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense has called the event a “significant demonstration of Pyongyang’s missile capability” while urging neighboring countries to maintain vigilance, as per Kyodo’s report.
The escalation underscores heightened tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang, with South Korea’s president Yoon Suk‑yeol convening an emergency meeting to review defense readiness, according to Yonhap’s coverage.
