North Korea Fires Missiles as Rival Militaries Track Them

North Korea fired several missiles from its east coast toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on Nov. 4, South Korea's military said. The launches came from the Sondok area, and South Korea and the United States tracked them through their military apparatus, while South Korea said it was ready to respond to any provocation.

Who Controls the Response

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the missiles on the morning of Nov. 4. South Korea and the United States were conducting a detailed analysis of their specifications, the military said, adding that the allies had monitored preparations and tracked the missiles immediately after launch.

South Korea's military said it was maintaining a robust combined defense posture and was prepared to respond to any provocation. That is the language of states preparing for one another's moves, with military institutions deciding what counts as a provocation and what response follows.

The U.S. Pacific Command said it was aware of the launches and consulting with allies and partners. Based on current assessments, it said, the event posed no immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory or its allies. The command's statement centered its assessment on military personnel, territory and allied interests.

South Korea's Defence Ministry described the launch as North Korea's fourth such weapons launch in a month. North Korea has carried out a series of tests this year, including a missile launch that flew more than 900 km (559 miles) and tests of hypersonic missiles.

A Cycle of Tests and Military Claims

In recent days, North Korea fired around a dozen short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area last Thursday. It tested a cluster warhead for tactical ballistic missiles on Saturday, then said Tuesday that it had tested a "dispersal warhead" for a strategic cruise missile the previous day.

North Korea also recently tested attack drones, a new precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile. North Korean media reported that Kim Jong Un visited a naval shipyard building a destroyer and stressed the importance of a powerful naval force. The source describes preparations and weapons tests by states; it reports no grassroots or community response to the launches.

The tests came amid heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul over a landmine explosion along their heavily fortified border. A joint Seoul-UN investigation concluded that North Korea had planted the mines more than a year earlier, wounding three South Korean soldiers. North Korea denied responsibility, vowed to further fortify its border areas and said it would resume its loudspeaker campaign.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ruled out renewed dialogue with Washington unless the United States abandoned what she called its hostile policy. She warned that Pyongyang would mount a stronger response to Washington's "invariable hostile policy." In a statement carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency, she said: "In the present reality when new records are being set in the implementation of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK, it is natural that new records should be created in our reflective counteraction."

Dialogue on the States' Terms

Kim also said: "It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons who refuse to abandon their policy of confrontation while talking about dialogue," and added, "The choice for peace includes dialogue of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us." She criticized U.S.-South Korean military exercises, sanctions and Washington's calls for North Korea's denuclearization.

Kim described U.S. findings linking Pyongyang to a record $6.3 billion theft from cryptocurrency exchange Binance as an "extension of Washington's invariable hostile policy toward the DPRK." On Tuesday, she had called the accusation a "grave political provocation." North Korea repeated its denial of responsibility after the FBI accused it of the Binance heist. International experts say Pyongyang uses cryptocurrency theft and fraudulent overseas information technology work to generate revenue for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said his relationship with Kim Jong Un is "very good." Trump said he "may" meet Kim during his Asian tour this month and that it "would be exciting"; in August, he said he expected to meet the North Korean leader this year.

Lee Choon-geun, a missile expert and board member at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said the frequent tests could mean North Korea is nearing preparations for mass production, potentially including weapons for export to Russia. "Before mass production and deployment, you typically need many tests," Lee said. "Or they may be looking to export missiles in bulk to Russia, in which case they would need to run a lot of tests before shipping."