North Korea launches short-range ballistic missile after new military tests

North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile from its eastern coast this Sunday, in a new weapons test that has led Seoul to urgently convene its National Security Council, as reported by the South Korean Government.

The South Korean presidential office has indicated that the projectile was fired from the Wonsan area, in the east of the country. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff had initially reported the detection of an unidentified projectile off the North Korean coast, without offering more details about its characteristics or its trajectory.

The launch extends the intense military activity deployed by Pyongyang in recent weeks and occurs while US President Donald Trump is trying to reopen diplomatic channels with Kim Jong Un after the failure of negotiations between the two in 2019.

Last month, Trump ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" the annual 'Ulchi Freedom Shield' maneuvers that the United States carries out with South Korea and justified the decision by referring to his good relationship with the North Korean leader. Pyongyang, however, has continued its military tests.

At the beginning of September, North Korea announced live-fire maneuvers in which it simultaneously used missiles, artillery and drones and which, according to the regime, demonstrated its "enormous destructive power."

On September 12, it carried out new weapons tests again, just one day after the United States, South Korea and Japan concluded five days of trilateral military exercises. Pyongyang considers these types of maneuvers rehearsals for a possible invasion and usually denounces them as a provocation.

The reduction of exercises ordered by Trump also failed to publicly lower the tone of the regime. Kim Yo Jong, sister of the North Korean leader and one of the main figures in his Government, assured that shortening them did not change their "provocative and aggressive nature."

Shortly after, the North Korean Army launched around ten short-range ballistic missiles into the sea in what it presented as a response to the maneuvers by US and South Korean forces.

Kim Jong Un has accelerated the development of North Korea's nuclear and missile arsenal in recent years while talks on its atomic program remain blocked since the failure of his summit with Trump in Hanoi in 2019.