The Koreas | Security | East Asia

Over 2 Consecutive Days, North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles Toward East Sea

Whatever goodwill Lee’s expression of regret over past drone incursions may have produced, Pyongyang’s hostile posture toward South Korea remains unchanged.

On April 6, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung expressed regret to North Korea at a cabinet meeting over a series of civilian drone incursions into its territory, marking the first time he had done so directly as head of state. 

The drones, operated by a small group of private citizens with some involvement from military and intelligence personnel, had crossed the Military Demarcation Line multiple times between September 2025 and January 2026, overflying areas near Kaesong and conducting surveillance. Lee called the incident irresponsible and reckless, ordered institutional reforms to prevent a recurrence, and made clear that South Korean law prohibits such private provocations.

Less than a day later, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement conveying that Kim Jong Un had assessed Lee as someone who showed the attitude of an honest and bold person. This was North Korea’s highest-profile positive reference to the South Korean president since Lee took office in June 2025. For the first time, Pyongyang also used Lee’s formal title, “President of South Korea,” a small but symbolically loaded detail given the North’s 2023 declaration reframing inter-Korean relations as between two mutually hostile foreign states.

“Our head of state commented it as a manifestation of frank and broad-minded man’s attitude,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement published in the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “For its own security, the ROK side should stop any reckless provocation against the DPRK and refrain from any attempt at contact, instead of paying lip-service to the utmost importance of peace and security.” (ROK is an acronym of South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.)

Following Kim Yo Jong’s statement, the South’s Unification Ministry called it a meaningful step toward peace and coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, framing the rapid back-and-forth as proof that both leaders’ intentions had been swiftly confirmed through an indirect channel of inter-Korean communication.

But Pyongyang ruled out the possibility of inter-Korean dialogue, contesting the South’s interpretation. On April 7, Jang Kum Chol, first vice-minister and director general of the Tenth Department of the North’s Foreign Ministry, issued a statement through the KCNA that eviscerated Seoul’s reading of Kim Yo Jong’s remarks. Calling the South Korean government’s analysis quite a spectacle, Jang said the core message of Kim Yo Jong’s statement had been a clear warning, not an overture. 

“If the ROK side lets out nonsense, regarding the rapid response from our government as an ‘exceptional friendly response’ and a ‘quick mutual confirmation of intentions by the top leaders,’ this will also be recorded as world-startling fools’ ‘hope-filled dream reading,’” Jang said. Jang further stated that South Korea’s identity as the most hostile adversary state of North Korea would never change no matter what its authorities say or do. 

Pyongyang’s rhetorical rebuke was promptly followed by military action. According to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea launched an unidentified projectile from the Pyongyang area eastward — one that showed signs of abnormal flight behavior early in its trajectory before disappearing. South Korean and U.S. intelligence assessed it to be a short-range ballistic missile and assessed the launch as likely a failure.

North Korea then launched again on April 8, twice. The JCS reported that the first launch, at approximately 8:50 a.m., consisted of multiple short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Wonsan area, flying roughly 240 kilometers before landing in the East Sea. The second launch, at approximately 2:20 p.m. KST, involved a single missile that flew over 700 kilometers. South Korean and U.S. intelligence tentatively identified the morning volley as KN-23 variants – the family of missiles known informally as the “North Korean Iskander.” With the April 7 projectile potentially confirmed as a ballistic missile, the April 8 launches would represent North Korea’s fifth and sixth ballistic missile tests of 2026, following launches on January 4, January 27, and........

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