North Korea acknowledged this Monday that last Saturday it conducted a "joint fire attack exercise" that included the launch of short-range ballistic missiles, as confirmed by the North Korean state agency KCNA.
The maneuver took place just a day after South Korea, the United States, and Japan concluded the trilateral exercise "Freedom Edge."
The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea detected, on Saturday at around 5:20 local time, the launch of several short-range ballistic missiles from the port city of Wonsan, on the country's east coast, heading towards the Sea of Japan. According to Reuters, the missiles traveled approximately 250 km before falling into the sea.
KCNA detailed that five army units participated in the exercise, testing multiple weapon systems: various types of attack drones, tactical cruise missiles, large-caliber thermobaric multiple rocket launchers, and tactical ballistic missiles. The agency stated that "all systems demonstrated the immense destructive power of fire by hitting the targets with 100% accuracy."
An artillery director quoted by KCNA assured that the exercise would enhance troop morale and improve their ability to "completely destroy the enemy" at the moment commanded.
The analyst Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute of Far East Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul, emphasized that "it was not a test of a single weapons system, but a demonstration of an integrated attack network," capable of coordinating drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and rocket artillery under unified command.
According to the expert, Pyongyang also collects operational data for actual deployment and practices tactics aimed at saturating the missile defense systems of South Korea and the U.S. through simultaneous attacks with weapons of varying flight characteristics.
The absence of Kim Jong-un during the exercise and the two-day delay in the release of the official report led Lim to conclude that Pyongyang aimed to present the event as a "technical and practical" drill while calibrating tensions with Washington.
The launch takes place in the context of an ambiguous diplomatic moment. President Donald Trump had ordered a reduction of the annual exercise "Ulchi Freedom Shield" as a gesture of rapprochement towards Pyongyang, and by mid-August he claimed to have had "very positive" exchanges with Kim and expected to meet with him by the end of the year.
However, Kim Yo Jong, sister of the North Korean leader, stated that she was not aware of any recent communication between Washington and Pyongyang.
The pattern of approach and tension is not new: during his first term, Trump and Kim moved from mutual threats to three historic summits that ultimately did not yield any nuclear agreement. Now, as Trump reaches out once again, North Korea continues to launch missiles and deepens its military alliance with Russia, to which it has sent between 14,000 and 15,000 soldiers to fight in Ukraine.
The launch on Saturday would be the 13th known event of North Korean ballistic missiles so far in 2026, a figure that illustrates the gap between diplomatic rhetoric and the reality on the ground.
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