North Korea fired at least 10 apparent short-range ballistic missiles toward the waters off its eastern coast on Thursday, Seoul said, days after its attempt to put another spy satellite launch into orbit ended in a ball of fire.
South Korean officials said the short-range weapons had been fired from the Sunan area of Pyongyang, traveling around 350 kilometers (215 miles) before splashing down into the Sea of Japan.
In a statement, the military condemned the launches — which put the South Korean capital and a number of important military bases within range — and vowed to "respond overwhelmingly to any provocation."
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan had "strongly protested" the launch as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, adding that the government was working closely with South Korea and the United States to analyze the situation.
The Defense Ministry said that none of the missiles appeared to have landed inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its coast.
Speaking at a news conference later Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said more "provocations" by Pyongyang were likely in store.
"We believe that North Korea may continue to launch various types of missiles and other provocations in the future," Hayashi said. "The government will continue to work closely with the United States and South Korea to collect and analyze necessary information and do its utmost to monitor the situation."
The U.S. military's Indo-Pacific Command also condemned the launches, calling on the North “to refrain from further unlawful and destabilizing acts.”
While the North has in the past launched multiple missiles in a single volley — apparently training for conducting so-called saturation strikes that overwhelm enemy defenses — the sheer number Thursday was unusual.
Earlier this month, Pyongyang test-fired several tactical ballistic missiles equipped with a "new autonomous navigation system," and in April it conducted its first drills launching multiple missiles in a simulation of a nuclear counterattack under its “nuclear trigger” management system.
Decker Eveleth, an analyst with the CNA research group, said these types of saturation drills could become a new normal for the North.
"We will likely see more big salvo launches out of DPRK going forward," Eveleth wrote on X. DPRK is the acronym for the North's formal name.
"We are no longer at a stage where single or double (short-range ballistic missile) launches indicate tests or stepping stones — they have an operational capability and they're practicing using it," he said.
Thursday's barrage comes after North Korea leader Kim Jong Un pledged to continue building spy satellites following the nuclear-armed country's failure to put one into orbit on Monday.
Ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday to discuss that failed launch, a senior North Korean Foreign Ministry official labeled U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “the most spiritless and weak-willed secretary-general in the history of the United Nations” over his condemnation of that satellite attempt.
Pyongyang has also ramped up its moves against Seoul — its “principal enemy” — with the South Korean military saying Wednesday that it had detected around 260 balloons carrying trash and feces sent across the border by the North.
According to Seoul, an ongoing analysis of the balloons found that each one carried bags weighing 10 kilograms on average of cigarette butts, pieces of fabric, batteries and manure.
The South Korean military on Thursday warned the North “to immediately cease its vulgar and shameful act,” which it said violates the Korean War armistice agreement, the Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korean activists, including defectors from the North, have long attempted to fly such balloons — which have often carried cash and thumb drives — across the border in hopes of disseminating information to average North Koreans.
Those moves have enraged Pyongyang, which views an influx of information about the outside world as a potential threat to regime stability.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, admitted Pyongyang was behind the rubbish-filled balloons, criticizing Seoul in a statement carried by state media late Wednesday and adding that the balloons were something the South has “always been doing.”
“We make it clear that we will respond to the ROK clans on (a) case-to-case basis by scattering rubbish dozens of times more than those being scattered to us, in the future,” she said.
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