North Korea Fires Multiple Missiles Toward East Sea in Fourth Launch in a Month

North Korea fired multiple missiles toward the sea off its east coast on Wednesday, November 4, South Korea's Defence Ministry said. It was Pyongyang's fourth weapons launch in a month, and it came hours after a senior North Korean official ruled out dialogue with Washington.

South Korea's military detected the missiles from the Sondok area, an eastern coastal region of North Korea, early on Wednesday. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul picked up the launch in the morning, and Yonhap News Agency reported that the missiles are believed to have flown less than 300 kilometres. Yonhap also reported that the military left open the possibility that different missile types were fired at the same time, so the exact weapons remain unconfirmed.

What Seoul reported

South Korea's Defence Ministry announced the launch, and the military in Seoul said it was watching the situation with Washington. Seoul and Washington were closely analysing the launch and remained ready to respond to any potential provocation, according to the reporting from South Korea.

No missile count beyond "multiple" was given in the reports, and no damage or response was reported. The missiles flew toward the sea that separates Korea and Japan, a route North Korea has used for many of its recent tests.

Lee Choon-geun, a missile expert and board member at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, told Reuters that a run of frequent tests can point to weapons moving toward production. "Before mass production and deployment, you typically need many tests," he said.

A rejection of talks hours earlier

Hours before the launch, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ruled out dialogue with Washington until the United States abandoned what she called its hostile policy. "It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons," she said, in remarks reported in the launch coverage.

In the same remarks, Kim Yo Jong repeated Pyongyang's denial that it was behind the hacking of the crypto exchange Binance, after the FBI accused North Korea of the heist. Orbit Post has covered the Binance accusation separately: Binance suspected hack coverage.

The launch also followed a North Korean media report that Kim Jong Un visited a naval shipyard building a destroyer and stressed the importance of a powerful naval force.

A year of frequent tests

Wednesday's launch was the fourth in a month, and it fits a year of steady testing. North Korea has carried out a series of weapons tests this year, including a missile launch that flew more than 900 kilometres and tests of hypersonic missiles, Reuters reported.

South Korea's military gave no indication that Wednesday's missiles left the region or threatened land. Analysis of the launch continues in Seoul and Washington, and further detail on the missile types may come from that work.