North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area on 12 October, one of which flew more than 900 kilometres on what Japan called an irregular path, days after South Korea disclosed a hypersonic weapon test.
North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the sea from the area around Pyongyang on Monday, 12 October 2026, according to reports from the Associated Press and Korean outlets. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the launches, with spokesperson Jang Do-young, but did not give the number of missiles detected or the flight details of all of them, according to the AP account carried by KSAT.
Japan detected at least two missiles launched 17 minutes apart, according to the same report. It says that the first flew about 220 kilometres and the second more than 910 kilometres, while a Korean report put the farthest at over 900 kilometres. The launch came at about 9:20 am, according to a Korean newspaper, and was described as the 16th ballistic missile launch of the year and the first in nine days, since 3 October.
Japan’s deputy defence minister, Takashi Koyari, said that the second missile followed an irregular flight path, which may indicate hypersonic capability. He said there were no reports of damage to aircraft or ships, and that Japan lodged a protest with North Korea through a diplomatic channel, condemning the launches as violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions, according to Korean coverage. The missiles appear to have fallen outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to the Japanese government.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed the relevant ministries to make the utmost effort to collect and analyse information, to ensure the safety of aircraft and ships and to stay in a state of full readiness for any contingency, according to a Korean summary of the Japanese government’s statement. That is the usual response of Tokyo to such launches, and the sources do not report any further measures.
North Korean state media said that the test verified the successful technical upgrading of an important core element of the missile, according to a Korean report that described a test-firing of a tactical ballistic missile to improve weapons systems. The AP report reviewed does not carry the state media description, so the nature of the weapon is based on the Korean report, and analysts’ assessments differ.
The timing is tied to South Korea’s own test. The AP report says that South Korea conducted a hypersonic weapon test on the previous Friday, and a Korean report says that Seoul had made public four days earlier its first test launch of a domestically developed hypersonic glide vehicle. Analysts quoted in the Washington Times and Korean media suggest that the North’s launch was intended as a countermeasure to it, though that is an interpretation and not a statement by Pyongyang.
A search result headline from Yahoo says that Kim showcased a missile capable of reaching the US and that Trump signalled a possible meeting, but the article could not be reviewed and its date is unknown, so Delima News does not draw on it. The sources do not give a US reaction to this launch.
The launches add to a run of tests this year, with 16 ballistic missile launches counted by the Korean report, which is a high rate. Each test gives North Korea data on its systems, and each is condemned by Japan and South Korea as a violation of Security Council resolutions that the North rejects.
No damage was reported, and the region’s governments are expected to continue to monitor the situation, with South Korea and Japan in contact over the launches.
Image: Pyongyang Railway Station (file photo; a stand-in image, not related to the missile launches). Photo: Ptrump16 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
