North Korea Missile Program

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a live‑fire strike drill on Saturday involving twelve 600mm 'ultra‑precision' multiple rocket launchers on the country’s east coast, while South Korea’s military said it detected about 10 short‑range ballistic missiles launched from near Pyongyang into the sea. State media quoted Kim as saying the exercise was meant to demonstrate the destructive power of North Korea’s 'tactical nuclear forces' and boasted that any opponent’s military infrastructure within range 'can never survive' if the system is used. South Korea’s National Security Council condemned the launches as a 'provocation' that violates U.N. Security Council resolutions banning North Korean ballistic‑missile tests. Photos released by the Korean Central News Agency showed Kim accompanied by his teenage daughter, believed to be Kim Ju Ae, whose frequent presence at missile events since 2022 has fueled succession speculation. The test comes amid annual joint U.S.–South Korea military exercises that Pyongyang routinely denounces as invasion rehearsals, underscoring how North Korea is using weapons demonstrations and nuclear signaling to try to pressure Washington and Seoul even as U.S. defense resources are stretched by the war with Iran.