North Korea Fires Suspected Ballistic Missile Into East Sea — SkimNews
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- North Korea fired an unidentified projectile off its east coast into the East Sea on Sunday (Sep 20), according to South Korea's joint chiefs of staff.
- Japan's prime minister's office identified the projectile on X as a "suspected ballistic missile," while Japan's defence ministry said it had "already fallen" without further details.
- The launch came eight days after North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea in what Pyongyang described as a "joint firepower drill."
- North Korea rejected an IAEA resolution demanding it halt nuclear activities, with a foreign ministry spokesperson saying it "has no effect on the DPRK's position as a nuclear weapons state" — a status Pyongyang has legally enshrined as permanent and irreversible.
- Estimates of North Korea's nuclear arsenal diverge: Trump said in August the country possessed 57 weapons, while South Korea puts the figure at 80-120.
Why it matters: North Korea's launch came days after it rejected the IAEA resolution demanding it halt nuclear activities and enshrined its arsenal as permanent and irreversible. The gap between South Korea's 80-120 warhead estimate and Trump's August figure of 57 underscores how far apart the allies' intelligence assessments remain on the actual size of Pyongyang's stockpile.
Ask SkimNews
