SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday fired a suspected short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s military said, as Pyongyang steps up its testing activity while talks with Washington and Seoul remain stalled. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapon flew about 700 kilometres (434 miles) cross-country after being fired from an inland area around the western county of Taekwan. It said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities had monitored North Korea’s launch preparations in advance and were now analyzing details of the test. South Korea’s military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance against the possibility of additional North Korean launches and is sharing relevant information with the United States and Japan, the joint chiefs said in a statement. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters that the missile was believed to have landed in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone and likely didn’t cause any damage. North Korea didn’t immediately confirm the launch. North Korea has been accelerating the pace of its weapons testing in recent weeks, including the firing of purported hypersonic missiles and cruise missiles last month that it said expanded the capabilities of its nuclear-armed military. South Korea’s military previously said it detected the North firing 10 rounds of artillery into its western waters on Monday as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began a two-day visit to South Korea. The joint chiefs also said the North fired the same number of rounds on Saturday afternoon, before a summit between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea’s Gyeongju, where Lee called for a stronger role by Beijing to persuade the North to return to dialogue with Washington and Seoul. Following annual security talks with South Korean defense officials on Tuesday, Hegseth praised South Korean plans to raise its military spending in the face of North Korean nuclear threats and other regional uncertainties. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been shunning all forms of talks with Washington and Seoul since his diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump derailed during Trump’s first term in 2019 amid disagreements over trading relief from U.S.-led sanctions on the North for steps to dismantle Kim’s nuclear program. He has since accelerated the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missiles program, while making Russia of his foreign policy, sending thousands of troops and large amounts of military equipment to help fuel President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. Kim’s arsenal now includes nuclear-capable missiles of various ranges targeting U.S. allies in Asia and the U.S. mainland. At a major military parade in Pyongyang last month – attended by high-level officials from Russia, China and Vietnam – Kim showcased some of the most powerful weapons in his arsenal, including a new intercontinental ballistic missile that he may be preparing to test in the coming weeks. Kim has urged Washington to drop its demand for the North to surrender its nukes as a precondition for resuming diplomacy. He ignored Trump’s proposal to meet while the American president was in South Korea last week for meetings with world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju. North Korea on Thursday denounced the Trump administration’s latest sanctions targeting cybercrimes that help finance its illicit nuclear weapons program, accusing Washington of harboring “wicked” hostility toward Pyongyang and vowing unspecified countermeasures. Some experts said the statement suggests that North Korea does not have an immediate urgency to reopen talks with Washington. ___ Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to the story from Tokyo.
