North Korea missiles fly as allies drill nearby

Seoul reports 10 launches hours after US-South Korea exercise starts

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

📌 KEY FACTS
• Approximately 10 ballistic missiles fired by Pyongyang in single morning
• Drill zone residents urged into shelters; commercial flights rerouted
• Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff tracking trajectory; no damage reported
• Annual Freedom Shield exercises scheduled through 20 March
• Largest single-day volley since 2022 when 8 missiles hit East Sea

Ten North Korea missiles arced over the peninsula before sunrise Thursday, Seoul’s military said, the flight paths crossing a US-South Korea joint exercise area that had gone live only hours earlier.

The barrage came on the second day of Freedom Shield, an 11-day command-post drill that Pyongyang condemns as a rehearsal for invasion. Thursday’s wave matches the largest daily tally since South Korea began compiling detailed launch data in 2019, according to defence-ministry records.

Liftoff before dawn

Launch vehicles emerged from three separate coastal sites between 05:37 and 06:15 local time, the Joint Chiefs said. All projectiles flew roughly 300 km at a peak altitude of 50 km before dropping into the East Sea outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. Japan’s Coast Guard confirmed splashdown at 06:28 and 06:42. No vessel damage or casualties were reported, but airlines operating out of Gimpo and Incheon delayed at least 23 departures while air-traffic controllers cleared corridors above the launch track. Seoul’s citywide public-alert sirens awakened residents at 05:41; subway trains paused for nine minutes until the all-clear sounded.

Parallel calendars

North Korea has fired missiles during allied drills for five consecutive years, yet the timing of Thursday’s volley stood out. Freedom Shield opened on Wednesday with 27,000 South Korean and 12,000 US troops testing combined command structures. Pyongyang’s state media had warned only a day earlier that “the Korean People’s Army will watch the enemies’ war gambit and take corresponding action.” Defence analysts note that the North test-fired a record 69 ballistic missiles in 2022, many clustered around allied exercise periods. The calendar alignment suggests pre-loaded launch orders awaiting the drill’s commencement, according to an assessment by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Mock nukes or duds?

Trajectory data released by Seoul indicates short-range missiles consistent with the KN-23 and KN-24 models, both of which Pyongyang claims can carry tactical nuclear warheads. South Korea’s defence ministry said it could not confirm whether the Thursday salvo simulated nuclear delivery, a claim North Korea made after similar launches last September. Weapons experts caution that lofted, short-range tests provide limited insight into re-entry vehicle performance. “What matters is whether they tested the arming, fusing and firing sequence,” said Ankit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment. Without an official claim from Pyongyang, analysts are treating the event as a show of mass-fire capability rather than a strategic system experiment.

Market yawns, island flinches

Currency and equity traders shrugged off the incident; the KOSPI index closed up 0.7 percent and the won strengthened slightly against the dollar. Reaction was sharper on Yeonpyeong Island, shelled by the North in 2010. Mayor Kim Tae-wook said elementary-school pupils practised evacuation drills in a concrete gym as sirens wailed. “When you hear that sound you remember the past,” Kim told island cable channel YTN. Fisheries cooperative director Park Jong-ho instructed crab boats to stay within five nautical miles of the harbour until evening, a precaution that cost the fleet an estimated 80 million won ($60,000) in lost catch, according to local officials.

Washington’s measured reply

US Forces Korea issued a two-line statement calling the launches “destabilising but not surprising” and reaffirming alliance readiness. Speaking at the Pentagon, press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said rotational strategic assets remain “on schedule” without announcing additional deployments. Analysts say the restraint reflects US desire to finish Freedom Shield without escalation. “The Biden administration is keeping the rhetorical temperature low,” said Jenny Town of the Stimson Centre. No UN Security Council meeting had been requested by Thursday night, diplomats in New York said, signalling fatigue after 20 North Korea meetings since 2019 produced no new sanctions.

But the challenge runs deeper than press statements: North Korea’s stockpile of fissile material has roughly doubled since 2017, according to open-source satellite assessments of the Yongbyon reactor, meaning each short-range test carries greater strategic weight even if Washington downplays it.

For South Koreans living within 50km of the border, Thursday’s sirens revived memories of a 2022 incident when a North Korean drone crossed Seoul’s no-fly zone. Hairdresser Lee Hye-jin, 41, said she left her shop and walked to a basement car park with six customers. “We shared instant coffee while checking our phones for news,” she recalled. “It feels absurd, but you adapt. My daughter thinks the siren is just another school drill.” Lee keeps a grab-bag with socks, biscuits and a power bank at the salon entrance; she added a rosary after today’s pre-dawn scare.

Global ripples quickly followed. Hours after the launches, Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong released a statement urging Pyongyang to “cease provocations and engage in dialogue,” echoing language used by Tokyo’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimoto Hayashi. Both nations imposed autonomous sanctions on North Korean banks last year, complicating the Kim regime’s efforts to access hard currency. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also referenced the missiles at a Brussels press conference, calling the alliance’s renewed dialogue with Seoul and Tokyo “timely.” The synchronicity underscores how regional missile tests now reverberate in European security debates shaped by Russia’s war in Ukraine and Moscow’s use of North Korean artillery shells.

Weekend watch starts now

Freedom Shield continues with a computer-simulated “counter-missile operation” on Friday, followed by live-fire field drills at the Seungjin range next Monday. South Korea’s National Security Council meets early next week to review retaliation options, including potential displays of Hyunmoo-2 ballistic missiles and F-35A stealth fighters, an official at the presidential office said. Pyongyang typically times follow-up tests for weekends when diplomatic channels are quieter; analysts at NK Pro estimate a 40 percent historical probability of additional launches on Saturday or Sunday.