North Korea Fires About Ten Short Range Ballistic Missiles
North Korea has fired another salvo into the East Sea. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang launched around ten short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area at about 08:30 PKT today. Seoul and Washington are still analysing the missiles’ range and specifications, while Japan said a suspected missile fell outside its exclusive economic zone.
This is North Korea’s seventeenth ballistic launch this year, and its first since 12 October. It came six days after Seoul offered military talks, an offer Pyongyang has left unanswered. The launch also follows weeks of tension along the inter-Korean border, from a mine blast that wounded South Korean soldiers to renewed propaganda loudspeaker threats.
No North Korean statement on the launch has been found. Pyongyang’s most recent stated position came in a letter to the Security Council, reported on 26 October, warning that it would exercise its right of self-defence if the South entered its territory.
The message is hard to miss. A salvo of this size, fired in silence days after an olive branch from Seoul, signals that Pyongyang prefers to speak through missiles rather than at the table.
Iran Claims It Shot Down A US Drone Over Hormuz
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they have shot down an American MQ-1 drone over the eastern Strait of Hormuz, opposite Sirik, calling it the fourteenth such drone they have downed. The claim is unverified, and no US military comment has been found. It adds to a string of similar IRGC claims over the waterway in recent months, few of them independently confirmed.
The timing matters. President Trump told Axios on 28 October that the job must be finished “either through a deal or another way”, and that it would soon become clear whether talks can succeed. With mediators still pressing Tehran to accept a Qatari draft, every incident over Hormuz, verified or not, narrows the space for diplomacy that regional states, Pakistan among them, have worked hard to keep open.
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