North Korea fires two ballistic missiles off east coast in three hours — SkimNews
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- North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sept 20 within a three-hour window — the first from Wonsan around 3pm flying ~450km, and the second from the same area at ~5:50pm flying more than 600km, with the first presumed to belong to the Hwasong-11 series.
- South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff identified both as ballistic missiles, condemned the launches as direct UN Security Council violations, and noted the test came just days after a Sept 12 launch — making it North Korea's second missile test in roughly a week.
- Japan's defence ministry confirmed the ballistic identification, with NHK reporting the first projectile landed outside Japan's exclusive economic zone; Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi lodged a diplomatic protest through embassy channels in Beijing, calling the tests a threat to "the peace and security of Japan, the region, and the international community."
- US Pacific Command posted on X that the launches "do not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or territory, or to our allies," while South Korean and US intelligence shared real-time tracking data with Japan from the initial stage of the launch.
- Kim Yo Jong warned on Sept 18 that US-led military drills — including an Aug 29–Sept 10 trilateral naval drill near Guam — were causing "ever-worsening" tensions and vowed no change in North Korea's nuclear build-up; on Sept 19 Pyongyang also dismissed a UN nuclear watchdog resolution against its programme.
Why it matters: The back-to-back launches within three hours, combined with Kim Yo Jong's explicit vow to keep expanding the nuclear arsenal, lock in a pattern of accelerating tests directly tied to allied drills — and South Korea's NSC has now formally framed them as UN Security Council violations, while the US response notably downplayed any immediate threat while reaffirming allied consultation.
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