'Provocative acts': North Korea fires ballistic missile ahead of US-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises

North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan early Wednesday (Aug 12), South Korea's military said, just days before annual large-scale joint exercises between Seoul and Washington are due to begin. Japan also confirmed the launch, describing the object as a suspected ballistic missile, and saying the suspected ballistic missile had already fallen.

The launch comes as tensions rise around the annual US-South Korea military drills, which Pyongyang has long condemned as preparations for an invasion.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from the Wonsan area at around 6 am. local time and travelled more than 700 kilometres before falling into waters off the country's east coast.

A warning ahead of US-South Korea drills?

The timing of the launch is significant. The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises are scheduled to begin on Monday and are designed to prepare US and South Korean forces for a potential conflict with North Korea.

Pyongyang has repeatedly responded to similar exercises with missile launches, either before or after the drills. "North Korea has never simply let a South Korea-US joint military exercise pass without a response," Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University, told AFP. He said the launch appeared to signal that Pyongyang was closely monitoring the upcoming exercises and could carry out further provocations if it believes they are necessary.

South Korea's national security office held an emergency meeting following the launch and called North Korea's recent missile tests "provocative acts", urging Pyongyang to stop them immediately.

What are the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises?

The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises will involve around 18,000 South Korean troops, along with US forces from the approximately 28,500 American personnel stationed in South Korea.

US and South Korean commanders say this year's training will account for the battlefield experience North Korean troops have gained through their involvement in the Ukraine conflict. "North Korean soldiers have taken those lessons they learned there and brought them back to North Korea," Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesman for the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command, said Monday. "Our training accounts for that threat," he added.

Japan calls launch a threat

The missile also comes amid growing tensions between North Korea and Japan. Japan's Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi described the launch as a "threat to peace and security in our region" and said Tokyo had lodged a strong protest with North Korea through diplomatic channels in Beijing.

Pyongyang has recently accused Japan of remilitarising and transforming itself into what it described as a "war state".

Japan has traditionally maintained a pacifist defence posture, but has increased military spending, strengthened defence partnerships, and deployed missile systems to islands closer to potential flashpoints. Koizumi said last week that Japan needed to strengthen its military with a "sense of urgency and crisis".