SEOUL and LONDON — North Korea test-launched two short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday afternoon, South Korean and Japanese officers stated.
The missile launch happened simply hours after Elbridge Colby, the U.S. below secretary of protection for coverage, wrapped up his visit to South Korea early Tuesday morning and arrived in Japan.
Seoul and Pyongyang have been on edge over North Korea’s accusation that South Korea intruded its airspace with drones in January and final September.
The launches amounted to a violation of U.N. Safety Council resolutions and posed “a critical difficulty in regards to the security of the Japanese individuals,” the Japanese Ministry of Protection stated in a press release.
Folks sit in entrance of a tv display screen exhibiting a information broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile check, at a prepare station in Seoul on Jan. 27, 2026.
Jung Yeon-je/AFP through Getty Photos
“Japan has lodged a powerful protest in opposition to North Korea and strongly condemned them,” the assertion stated in Japanese, which was translated by ABC Information.
The missiles had been fired from the Pyongyang space at about 4 p.m. and each traveled virtually 350 kilometers, or about 217 miles, earlier than splashing down into the Sea of Japan, Japanese and Korean officers stated.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Employees stated in its personal assertion that Seoul’s intelligence authorities tracked the launch and shared information with each Japan and the USA.
Folks sit in entrance of a tv display screen exhibiting a information broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile check, at a prepare station in Seoul on Jan. 27, 2026.
Jung Yeon-je/AFP through Getty Photos
“Underneath a strong South Korea–U.S. mixed protection posture, the South Korean army is carefully monitoring numerous developments by North Korea and sustaining the capabilities and readiness to reply overwhelmingly to any provocation,” South Korea’s army stated in a press release.
Japanese officers stated the missiles had been thought to have landed close to the North Korean coast within the Sea of Japan, which is also called the East Sea.
“The federal government has supplied info to plane and ships crusing within the space, however at the moment no reviews of harm have been confirmed,” Japan stated in a press release in Japanese, which was translated by ABC Information.
