North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles amid ongoing US-South Korea military drills

This is North Korea's first missile test conducted since Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.

South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) told Yonhap news agency that it detected the launch from an area near the western county of Hwangju in North Hwanghae Province at around 1:50 p.m., noting that it may have involved close-range ballistic missiles (CRBMs).

Under the U.N. Security Council Resolutions, North Korea has been barred from staging any launch that uses ballistic missile technology.

The JCS said it has bolstered surveillance and maintained a full readiness posture under close cooperation with the United States.

Freedom Shield

As per the US Army website, Eighth Army began its portion of Freedom Shield 2025 Sunday, March 9.

Freedom Shield is an 11-day exercise conducted by the Republic of Korea and the United States consisting of training to reflect the Korea Theater of Operations – a combined, joint, multi-domain, and interagency operating environment. The exercise schedule is March 10-21.

Eighth Army, along with the ROK Arm,y are the ground component of U.S. Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command. Extensive combined training is conducted on both training ranges and within combined operations centers throughout South Korea. All six of Eighth Army’s major subordinate commands participate, the website said.

Field training events throughout FS25 include urban combat operations, field hospital operations, mass casualty treatment and evacuation, field artillery exercises, air assault training, wet gap crossing, air defense artillery asset deployment and validation, and a joint assault exercise with the U.S. Marine Corps.

North Korea's Submarine Project

North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un recently inspected a new project of building a nuclear-powered submarine, media reports said.

According to reports, the North Korean leader warned that his country’s maritime defence capability will be ‘fully’ projected ‘in any necessary waters without limitation’.

Kim made the remark when he visited major shipyards tasked with constructing warships, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as quoted by Yonhap in its report.

The North Korean news agency did disclose the date and location of the inspection.

During the inspection, the leader reviewed “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine” under construction in line with a defense decision unveiled at a key party congress in 2021, reported Yonhap.