North Korea fires ballistic missiles again, flexing muscle amid Iran war
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The incident marks North Korea’s seventh ballistic missile launch in 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEOUL - North Korea fired ballistic missiles into the sea on April 19, accelerating its missile launches amid Iran war tensions and talk of possible meetings with the US and South Korea.
Pyongyang’s intense missile activity – this was the fourth such launch in April and the seventh in 2026 – is meant to display its self-defence capabilities while gaining international leverage, some experts said.
“The missile launches may be a way of showing that – unlike Iran – we have self-defence capabilities,” said former South Korean presidential security adviser Kim Ki-jung.
“The North also appears to be exerting pressure pre-emptively and making a show of force before engaging in dialogue with the United States and South Korea,” he said.
Iran war, Trump visit loom over launches
The seven-week-old US-Israeli war against Iran, which has the curbing of Tehran’s nuclear programme as one aim, could reinforce Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, experts and former South Korean officials say.
US President Donald Trump, preparing for a summit in China in May, and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have repeatedly expressed interest in holding talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
There are no publicly known plans for any meetings.
Mr Lee recently conveyed regret to the North for drone incursions from the South, receiving rare praise from Pyongyang.
The missiles on April 19 were fired near the city of Sinpo on North Korea’s east coast towards the sea at around 6.10am (5.10am Singapore time) and flew about 140km, South Korea’s military said in a statement.
South Korea’s presidential Blue House convened an emergency security meeting, calling the launches a provocation that violated UN Security Council resolutions, according to media reports. It urged Pyongyang to “stop the provocative acts”.
Japan’s government posted on social media that the missiles were believed to have fallen near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, and no incursion into Japan’s exclusive economic zone has been confirmed.
It was not clear what kind of ballistic missiles were fired, but Sinpo has submarines and equipment for test-firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
The North last fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in May 2022, and it flew as far as 600km.
North Korea has made “very serious” advances in its abilities to turn out nuclear weapons, with the probable addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on April 15.
In late March, North Korean leader Kim said Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security. REUTERS
