North Korea launches another missile towards sea ahead of U.S.-South Korean military drills — SkimNews
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- North Korea launched a ballistic missile from Wonsan on August 12, 2026, that flew more than 700 km, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- The launch marks North Korea's second ballistic missile test in less than a week, following an August 6 short-range ballistic missile — its first such test since late June.
- South Korea's presidential national security council called the launch an "act of provocation" defying UN Security Council resolutions banning North Korean ballistic missile tests.
- Japan's Defense Ministry detected the launch but said the missile did not reach Japan's exclusive economic zone.
- The test came two days after the United States and South Korea announced their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield drills will begin August 17, which Pyongyang views as invasion rehearsals.
- Kim Jong Un has deepened cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition for the Ukraine war and hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang in June, the first such visit in seven years.
Why it matters: The timing is deliberate and predictable: North Korea treats the Ulchi Freedom Shield drills as a trigger for weapons tests, and the source notes Kim "likely hopes to use his enlarged arsenals to wrest concessions" such as sanctions relief. His diplomatic footing has also shifted — he is now embedded in deeper alliances with Russia and China than during the 2019 collapse of Kim-Trump diplomacy, giving him more leverage and more backers.
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