North Korea Launches Multiple Ballistic Missiles Again, as Peninsula Arms Spiral and US-North Korea Diplomatic Standoff Deepen in Tandem

According to The Hindu, North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on October 12, which the South Korean military characterized as the latest round of weapons demonstrations this month. Jang Do-young, spokesperson for the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that the missiles were launched from an area near Pyongyang, with one flying over 900 kilometers before splashing into the sea, though Seoul did not disclose the total number of missiles detected.

On the same day, Japanese Vice Defense Minister Takeshi Kotani stated that Japan had detected at least two missiles launched 17 minutes apart, with the first traveling approximately 220 kilometers and the second traveling over 910 kilometers. The flight trajectory was described as "irregular," and therefore "suspected" to be a hypersonic weapon. Kotani said both missiles landed in waters outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, causing no damage to ships or aircraft.

This launch came just three days after South Korea's test of a domestically-produced hypersonic missile. Seoul's October 9 test was aimed at developing a weapon capable of flying at least five times the speed of sound while evading missile defense systems. The office of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, without directly responding to North Korean threats, stated that once fully operational, the weapon would enhance South Korea's ability to conduct strikes against key targets in the "Korean Peninsula theater." Lee Jae-myung himself called the weapon crucial for strengthening South Korea's "conventional defense capabilities."

The two sides' tests have already formed a chain of mutually provocative escalation. On October 3, North Korea had just tested what it claimed was a hypersonic intermediate-range missile, asserting that the weapon could evade the missile defense systems of South Korea and Japan. ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Jang Do-young stated bluntly that North Korea's launch "could be either to advance its missile technology or in response to South Korea's hypersonic weapon test." The South Korean Presidential Office's National Security Office called on North Korea to "immediately cease" ballistic launches, on the grounds that such actions violate UN Security Council resolutions.

However, the relevant sanctions resolutions have long been primarily driven by the United States, forming a core component of Washington's policy framework for pressuring North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has rejected U.S. President Trump's call to resume diplomacy and set out specific counter-conditions: Washington must abandon its "hostile policy" toward North Korea and drop the demand that denuclearization be a precondition for dialogue. This stance reveals the core structure of the peninsula's security dilemma—the U.S. insists on "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" as the threshold for negotiations, while Pyongyang views its nuclear capability as the fundamental counter to the "hostile policy." Against the backdrop of Kim Jong-un having already designated South Korea as a "permanent enemy" and the comprehensive freeze on inter-Korean ties after 2019, this asymmetric contest continues to reinforce itself.

A landmine explosion near the Military Demarcation Line last month further heightened tensions. Three South Korean soldiers were injured, and following investigations, the South Korean military and the U.S.-led United Nations Command concluded that the explosive device had been planted by the North. North Korea denied responsibility and publicly mocked Seoul's demand for an apology, with both sides holding substantively divergent views on responsibility.

Kotani confirmed that Japan had lodged a protest with North Korea through its embassy channel in Beijing. Yet the next round of escalation on the peninsula appears to be only a matter of time: with Pyongyang unwilling to return to talks under the precondition of abandoning its nuclear program, Washington showing no willingness to adjust the definition of its "hostile policy," and Seoul continuing to strengthen its so-called "conventional defense" strike capabilities, every weapons test will be read by the other side as a new threat.