North Korea on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) performed its second ballistic missile test in less than a week, its neighbors said, a likely protest of the upcoming South Korea-U.S. military drills that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a ballistic missile fired from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area around 6 a.m. flew more than 700 km. It said South Korea remains ready to repel any provocations by North Korea in cooperation with the United States.

South Korea’s Presidential national security council issued a statement urging North Korea to stop ballistic missile launches, which it said are “acts of provocation” that defy UN Security Council resolutions.

Multiple UN Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from launching ballistic missiles. But North Korea has ramped up ballistic and other weapons testing activities to expand its nuclear and missile arsenals since Kim’s high-stakes diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Experts say Kim likely hopes to use his enlarged arsenals to wrest concessions from the U.S., such as relaxing of international economic sanctions on the North.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday (August 12) it also spotted a suspected ballistic missile launch from North Korea. It said it didn’t detect the weapon reaching Japan’s exclusive economic zone, suggesting it was believed to have fallen further away from the Japanese coast.

The latest launch came two days after South Korea and the United States announced they will kick off their annual large-scale military drills on Aug. 17 to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.

North Korea has previously responded to the Ulchi Freedom Shield training and other major South Korea-US military exercises with provocative weapons tests and harsh rhetoric. The US and South Korea have repeatedly said their training is defensive in nature.

After last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield training exercises began, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the drills showed the US and South Korea’s “will to ignite a war” and claimed they have grown more provocative than before, which has prompted North Korea to respond with “proactive and overwhelming” countermeasures.

On Aug. 6, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan detected the launch of a short-range ballistic missile from North Korea in what was the North’s first ballistic weapons testing activity since late June. North Korea didn’t confirm the reported launch, though it usually releases details of weapons tests a day later.

In recent years, Mr. Kim has boosted his diplomatic footprint by strengthening cooperation with Russia by supplying troops and ammunition to support its war against Ukraine. He’s also recently taken steps to bolster ties with China, the country’s traditional ally and economic pipeline. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the North Korean capital Pyongyang in June for the first time in seven years.

North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile over the Sea of Japan on Thursday (August 6, 2026), Seoul’s military said, after Pyongyang lambasted Tokyo for beefing up its military stance in the Pacific.

North Korea has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state since leader Kim Jong Un’s 2019 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief.

Tokyo’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said earlier this week that Japan’s military needs to be boosted with a “sense of urgency and crisis”, as a new government assessment warned of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.

In a statement carried by North Korean state media on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong — the sister of leader Kim Jong Un — said Pyongyang’s “leadership will set up additional military options which are obviously due to Japan’s transformation”.

“Our military detected a short-range ballistic missile launched from the Wonsan area of North Korea at around 5:00 pm (0800 GMT),” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a message to news organisations.

The JCS said earlier the missile was launched towards the East Sea, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

Japan’s defence ministry also posted on X that “something that may be a ballistic missile has been launched from North Korea.”

A separate post shortly afterwards said “there is no longer any impact on the areas around Japan”.

Seoul has strengthened surveillance and maintained readiness for possible additional launches while sharing information with its security allies — the United States and Japan, the JCS said.

‘New militarism’

North Korea has recently deepened economic and military ties with Russia, supplying troops and munitions for Moscow’s war in Ukraine in exchange for financial support, food, energy and military technology, analysts say.

It has also repeatedly branded Seoul — a security ally of Washington — its “most hostile” enemy.

Japan’s Defence Ministry declined to comment directly on Kim Yo Jong’s Wednesday diatribe but said the country’s defence capabilities “remain bare minimum” and “are not meant to threaten other countries”.

“Ours isn’t the defence meant to wage wars, but to prevent new wars, strictly kept to self-defence and within the scope of our (pacifist) Constitution and international laws,” it said in a statement.

Tokyo raised its military expenditure by 9.7% to $62.2 billion in 2025 — equivalent to 1.4 percent of GDP, its highest share since 1958.

China, a key ally of North Korea, has also recently expressed alarm at what it sees as “new militarism” by Japan.

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung has reversed the stance of his hawkish predecessor since taking power in Seoul in June 2025, offering nuclear-armed Pyongyang talks without preconditions.

The hermetic leadership of North Korea has yet to respond to his repeated offers.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.