North Korea fires ballistic missile towards Sea of Japan

SEOUL – North Korea fired at least two ballistic missiles towards the Sea of Japan (also known as East Sea) on Jan 27, Tokyo and Seoul said, a day after a visiting US official hailed Washington’s “model ally” in the South.

Pyongyang has significantly increased missile testing in recent years. According to analysts, this is aimed at improving precision strike capabilities, challenging Washington as well as Seoul, and testing weapons before exporting them to key ally Russia.

Japan’s coast guard, citing the defence ministry, said it had detected two ballistic missiles fired towards the Sea of Japan.

Japanese news agency Jiji Press reported the two missiles had landed outside of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, citing defence ministry sources.

South Korea’s Joint Chief of Staff also said it had detected a “projectile” being fired towards what Seoul calls the East Sea.

The test is Pyongyang’s second of the month, following a salvo of missiles

fired hours before South Korea’s leader headed to China for a summit

.

It comes a day after a high-level visit to Seoul by the Pentagon’s number three official Elbridge Colby, who hailed South Korea as a “model ally”.

Longstanding treaty allies, ties between the US and South Korea were forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War.

Washington still stations 28,500 troops in South Korea as a deterrent against the nuclear-armed North.

Pyongyang routinely denounces Washington and Seoul’s joint military drills as rehearsals for invasion.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in December 2025 bashed Seoul’s push to develop its own nuclear-powered submarines with the US, calling it a “threat” that “must be countered”.

‘Heighten tensions’

During his first term, US President Donald Trump met North Korea’s Mr Kim three times in efforts to reach a denuclearisation deal.

But since a summit in Hanoi fell through over differences about what Pyongyang would get in return for giving up its nuclear weapons, no progress has been made between the two countries.

Mr Trump had expressed hopes for a meeting with Mr Kim ahead of a regional summit in South Korea in October 2025, but these went unanswered by the North Korean leader.

Pyongyang meanwhile has dispatched thousands of troops to fight for Russia, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies, as Moscow presses ahead with its nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea is also set to hold a landmark congress of its ruling party in the coming weeks, its first in five years.

Ahead of that conclave, leader Kim Jong Un ordered the “expansion” and modernisation of the country’s missile production.

Chair professor Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told AFP that “with the party congress approaching, the latest launch appears intended to heighten tensions to reinforce internal discipline and consolidate regime unity”.

He added that the timing of the launch “may also be a response to Colby’s visit” to the peninsula. AFP