North Korea Missile Launch: Around 10 Fired From Wonsan

North Korea has fired a salvo of around ten short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area on its east coast into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, in the country’s first ballistic missile launch in 17 days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that it detected the launches at around 12:30 local time on October 29, with early counts ranging from about ten missiles to around a dozen and flight distances not immediately disclosed. Japan’s Ministry of Defence reported that the object it tracked fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, while the Japan Coast Guard warned that a possible ballistic missile had already fallen into the sea. The launch is the country’s 17th ballistic missile launch this year, and a salvo of this size from one coastal area points to an emphasis on volume of fire that is considerably harder for missile defences to absorb than single test rounds.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that South Korea, the United States and Japan were sharing information on the launches and keeping their forces ready, stating: “Our military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance in preparation for possible additional launches.” The salvo comes less than a week after the South Korean Ministry of National Defence proposed military talks on October 23 to confirm the exact course of the Military Demarcation Line, restore military communication lines and prevent accidental clashes, with three-way talks including the United Nations Command also offered. Pyongyang has not answered that proposal, nor a similar one made in November 2025, and Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, had threatened to deploy more tactical strike weapons along the border on October 19.

The launch is the latest in a particularly dense month of testing. On October 3 North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile from the same Wonsan area, which the South Korean military assessed had flown more than 700 kilometres and Japan put at roughly 680 kilometres, with Kim Yo-jong claiming the missile could change its trajectory at low altitude and was very hard to intercept. Multiple ballistic missiles followed from the Pyongyang area on October 12, only four days after South Korea’s first hypersonic glide vehicle test, and on October 14 the country test-fired two types of strategic cruise missiles from underwater off its east coast. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said after the October 3 launch that it did “not pose an immediate threat to American personnel or territory or to our allies.”

Tensions on the land border have risen steadily since September 21, when mines exploded in the western sector of the Demilitarized Zone and wounded three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. A joint investigation with the United Nations Command found that the North Korean anti-personnel mines had been buried about 10 metres south of the Military Demarcation Line, a finding Pyongyang has denied, and the South Korean military has recorded around 50 crossings of the line by North Korean troops since the start of the year. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had not identified the type of missile fired on October 29 by the time of its first statement, the second launch from the Wonsan area this month.