North Korea fires second suspected missile in a week
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- North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile toward the sea on Wednesday, per Japan's Defense Ministry — the second such launch in less than a week, with the Defense Ministry reporting the weapon landed in the waters.
- Yonhap news agency, citing South Korea's military, reported that the launch was an unidentified projectile fired off North Korea's east coast.
- South Korea and the United States announced they will kick off their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield large-scale military drills next week to bolster readiness against North Korean threats.
- North Korea has historically viewed the US-South Korean drills as a rehearsal to invade, responding to past iterations with provocative weapons tests and harsh rhetoric.
- Last week's launch — a short-range ballistic missile detected by South Korea, the US, and Japan — marked North Korea's first ballistic weapons testing since late June, though Pyongyang did not confirm it.
Why it matters: The launch mirrors North Korea's established pattern of weapons tests timed to US-South Korean military drills, which Pyongyang frames as invasion rehearsals. With Ulchi Freedom Shield beginning next week, the two-day gap between the drill announcement and this launch fits that historical response cycle.
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