N. Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles, at least one traveling over 900 km

North Korea fired several ballistic missiles of different types from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea on Monday morning, with at least one type traveling more than 900 kilometers, South Korea's military said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches appear to be a show of force in response to South Korea's successful hypersonic missile test.

Joint Chiefs spokesman Jang Do-yeong said at the Defense Ministry's regular briefing that South Korea's military detected several ballistic missiles launched from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea beginning at around 9:20 a.m. Monday. "The detected North Korean missiles flew more than 900 kilometers, and South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis of the exact specifications," Jang said. The military did not disclose the precise number of missiles fired or the flight distances by type.

The Joint Chiefs are focusing on the possibility that the launches are linked to South Korea's test of a hypersonic glide vehicle, or HGV, conducted Thursday. Jang said the launches are being analyzed as "a show of force in response to our successful hypersonic missile test, as well as a demonstration of missile capabilities and a display of achievements in line with the roadmap of the five-year national defense development plan."

The government conducted the first test launch of a domestically developed HGV from a maritime barge at the Agency for Defense Development's Anheung test site on Thursday, with President Lee Jae-myung in attendance, and released photos of the launch. Monday's North Korean launches came four days after that test.

North Korea had also fired a ballistic missile from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea on Oct. 3. Pyongyang claimed at the time that it had test-launched a "medium-range strategic missile" equipped with a hypersonic warhead and said it flew 1,000 kilometers — a figure at odds with South Korea's military assessment of "more than 700 kilometers."

Whether Monday's launches included a hypersonic missile emerged as a key question, but the Joint Chiefs withheld judgment. When asked whether the missile that flew more than 900 kilometers could be a hypersonic missile, Jang said the military was "conducting further detailed analysis." The Joint Chiefs also declined to offer a specific assessment of whether the missiles were medium-range class or of North Korea's level of hypersonic missile development and operational deployment.

South Korean and US intelligence authorities tracked and shared information on the launches from the outset. The Joint Chiefs said the two allies "are maintaining the capabilities and readiness to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation while closely monitoring North Korea's various activities under the firm South Korea-US combined defense posture."