North Korea Confirms September 12 Missile Launch Was Joint Firepower Drill

Por Mitch Shin — The Diplomat

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The exercise came a day after trilateral Freedom Edge drills ended and as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to seek a new summit with Kim Jong Un.

This composite image, released by North Korean state media, shows the joint firepower attack drill held on Sep. 12, 2026.

North Korea’s state media confirmed Monday that a joint firepower drill by artillery and missile units across the Korean People’s Army took place on September 12, matching the timing of a ballistic missile launch that the South Korean military had detected the same day.

On September 12, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Wonsan area on North Korea’s east coast at around 5:20 a.m. KST Saturday. The missiles flew about 250 kilometers before landing in the ocean to the east of North Korea. The JCS added that its forces were closely monitoring North Korea’s activity under a firm South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture.

Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), one of the North’s state-controlled media, reported on September 14, two days later, that the launch stemmed from a joint firepower attack drill involving subunits from five artillery and missile joint units. The drill incorporated attack drones, a tactical cruise missile, a large-caliber thermal-pressure multiple rocket launcher, and a tactical ballistic missile, the KCNA said.

“It is one of the training tasks prioritized by the army to get familiar with the procedure for the operation of the integrated firepower control system, the systematic component of the strategic weapons combined management system, improve the specialty of the integrated automatic firepower control of various combat systems and increase the efficiency of destroying the targets with concentrated fire,” Director of the Artillery Bureau Yu Chang Son was quoted as saying in the KCNA report.  

The launch came a day after South Korea, the United States, and Japan wrapped up Freedom Edge, a five-day trilateral exercise held from September 7 to September 11 to strengthen air, maritime, and cyber coordination against North Korean nuclear and missile threats. North Korea has previously cast both trilateral and South Korea-U.S. drills as provocations. The September 12 drill fits a pattern in which Pyongyang has answered major allied exercises with missile launches almost immediately after they conclude.

The missile test also came as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a new summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, reviving the personal diplomacy that produced three meetings during Trump’s first term but no agreement on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Trump has discussed meeting Kim during a possible trip to Asia as early as this fall. His aides have weighed a rendezvous around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November, but no formal arrangements have begun.

However, Kim has kept the overture at arm’s length. He did not mention Trump’s outreach when he presided over a Workers’ Party political bureau meeting in late August even as he called for what state media described as “extraordinary responsibility” in carrying out state projects.

Pyongyang’s latest missile launch marked its first ballistic missile test since August 20, when the North fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles hours after Trump said he intended to meet Kim later this year. Neither major military exercises nor renewed diplomatic overtures have interrupted the North’s testing tempo this year.

In related developments on September 14, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it plans to provide Kangdong County Hospital in Pyongyang with 166 types of medical equipment, according to a local media report. The support falls under a health and medical cooperation program aimed at modernizing the North’s rural hospitals, and Kangdong is considered the first completed example of Kim’s push for such facilities. Kim Dae-sik, a legislator with the main opposition People Power Party, who received the document, said the policy of aiding North Korea “while it pursues nuclear weapons” deserved reconsideration.

Separately, South Korea and the U.S. are set to hold their 29th Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue in Busan from September 16 to September 18, with attention focused on Washington’s request for a possible South Korean deployment to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has blocked shipping since Israeli-U.S. strikes began in February. Seoul and Washington also plan to discuss the transfer of wartime operational control and shipbuilding cooperation.

Seoul said no decision has been made on the Hormuz issue. According to the recent poll surveyed by Hankuk Gallup on September 11, 55 percent of respondents said they do not support deploying troops to the Strait of Hormuz. 

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North Korea’s state media confirmed Monday that a joint firepower drill by artillery and missile units across the Korean People’s Army took place on September 12, matching the timing of a ballistic missile launch that the South Korean military had detected the same day.

On September 12, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched from the Wonsan area on North Korea’s east coast at around 5:20 a.m. KST Saturday. The missiles flew about 250 kilometers before landing in the ocean to the east of North Korea. The JCS added that its forces were closely monitoring North Korea’s activity under a firm South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture.

Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), one of the North’s state-controlled media, reported on September 14, two days later, that the launch stemmed from a joint firepower attack drill involving subunits from five artillery and missile joint units. The drill incorporated attack drones, a tactical cruise missile, a large-caliber thermal-pressure multiple rocket launcher, and a tactical ballistic missile, the KCNA said.

“It is one of the training tasks prioritized by the army to get familiar with the procedure for the operation of the integrated firepower control system, the systematic component of the strategic weapons combined management system, improve the specialty of the integrated automatic firepower control of various combat systems and increase the efficiency of destroying the targets with concentrated fire,” Director of the Artillery Bureau Yu Chang Son was quoted as saying in the KCNA report.  

The launch came a day after South Korea, the United States, and Japan wrapped up Freedom Edge, a five-day trilateral exercise held from September 7 to September 11 to strengthen air, maritime, and cyber coordination against North Korean nuclear and missile threats. North Korea has previously cast both trilateral and South Korea-U.S. drills as provocations. The September 12 drill fits a pattern in which Pyongyang has answered major allied exercises with missile launches almost immediately after they conclude.

The missile test also came as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a new summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, reviving the personal diplomacy that produced three meetings during Trump’s first term but no agreement on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Trump has discussed meeting Kim during a possible trip to Asia as early as this fall. His aides have weighed a rendezvous around the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November, but no formal arrangements have begun.

However, Kim has kept the overture at arm’s length. He did not mention Trump’s outreach when he presided over a Workers’ Party political bureau meeting in late August even as he called for what state media described as “extraordinary responsibility” in carrying out state projects.

Pyongyang’s latest missile launch marked its first ballistic missile test since August 20, when the North fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles hours after Trump said he intended to meet Kim later this year. Neither major military exercises nor renewed diplomatic overtures have interrupted the North’s testing tempo this year.

In related developments on September 14, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it plans to provide Kangdong County Hospital in Pyongyang with 166 types of medical equipment, according to a local media report. The support falls under a health and medical cooperation program aimed at modernizing the North’s rural hospitals, and Kangdong is considered the first completed example of Kim’s push for such facilities. Kim Dae-sik, a legislator with the main opposition People Power Party, who received the document, said the policy of aiding North Korea “while it pursues nuclear weapons” deserved reconsideration.

Separately, South Korea and the U.S. are set to hold their 29th Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue in Busan from September 16 to September 18, with attention focused on Washington’s request for a possible South Korean deployment to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has blocked shipping since Israeli-U.S. strikes began in February. Seoul and Washington also plan to discuss the transfer of wartime operational control and shipbuilding cooperation.

Seoul said no decision has been made on the Hormuz issue. According to the recent poll surveyed by Hankuk Gallup on September 11, 55 percent of respondents said they do not support deploying troops to the Strait of Hormuz. 

Mitch Shin is a chief correspondent for The Diplomat, covering the Korean Peninsula. He is also a non-resident research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies and associate fellow for the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.

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Fonte: The Diplomat