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North Korea test-fires 10 missiles as South Korea, U.S. stage war games
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North Korea test-fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan at the weekend, five days after South Korea and its U.S. allies kicked off their annual spring war games.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said they detected the launches at around 1:20 p.m.
“Our military maintains a firm readiness posture while closely sharing North Korean ballistic missile information with the U.S. and Japanese sides amid a heightened surveillance posture against additional launches,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs said, per Yonhap News Agency, in a template statement.
The missiles splashed in the Sea of Japan, east of the peninsula.
For tests of ballistic missiles, Pyongyang follows common global protocols, firing them on a west-east trajectory so the Earth’s rotation grants them extra boost.
Experts say North Korea conducts test firings for two reasons. One is to gather technical data; one is to make political points.
Currently, North Korea is highly likely to be gathering data from live war. Since January, it has been firing tube and rocket artillery from Russia’s Kursk Oblast into Ukraine.
Saturday’s missile shoot followed angry rhetoric aimed at the annual “Freedom Shield” drills by Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Pyongyang insists that the exercises, which Washington calls “defensive in nature,” are actually practice for an invasion.
Ms. Kim warned, in a statement in state media on Tuesday, the day following the drills’ commencement, that they could “lead to terrible consequences that are unimaginable.”
Her fortunes rose in February at the once-every-five-years Workers Party Congress, where she was promoted director of the party’s General Affairs Department.
Though the powerful Ms. Kim, who frequently pens bylined columns on inter-Korean relations, warned that Freedom Shield “will further destroy regional stability,” life in South Korea continues as usual.
The population has long been immunized to North Korean threats, and all three actions — the start of spring military drills by the two allies, followed by the North’s response in the form of barrages of rhetoric and missiles — had been predicted.
Events follow the same course virtually every year, though this spring, the drills take place against the backdrop of an ongoing Israeli-U.S. aerial campaign against Iran.
Indo-Pacific-based U.S. assets — missile interceptors in South Korea and U.S. Marines in Okinawa — are currently redeploying to the Middle East, where Iran’s will to fight remains unbroken.
The redeployments have raised quiet concerns about the U.S. ability to fight a two-front war, and come at a time when a major power shift is underway in the defense of the Korean Peninsula.
The all-domain drills encompass both computer simulations and “Warrior Shield” field exercises. Some 18,000 troops are engaged, with training running from March 9 through March 19.
While the “Allies drill-North Korea responds angrily” scenario was predictable, a new dynamic is animating the war games this year.
The Spring 2026 drills are being used to stress-test South Korea’s domestic capabilities, notably in sophisticated areas such as long-range strike, command and control, and intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance.
The assessments, made by the U.S. side, are part of the planned conditions-based transfer of wartime operational control of South Korean troops from U.S. to South Korean command.
The Lee Jae-myung administration, which took office in summer 2025, has announced that it wants wartime “OPCON Transfer” to take place by the end of its term, 2030.
The concept has a long history, but current Seoul-Washington policy stances suggest it may, finally, happen.
OPCON transfer was first brokered by the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration (2003-2008), which sought sovereign control of its own forces.
However, it was subsequently slow-walked by successive conservative administrations in Seoul, who feared it would greenlight reduced U.S. commitments to the peninsula.
As matters stand, Korean troops would fight under the orders of the Combined Forces Command, a joint structure led by an American four-star general, with a South Korean deputy.
Exactly how OPCON transfer — the exact conditions to be met have never been made fully public — would proceed, and what might happen to CFC if and when it does, is unclear. Whether U.S. troops would fight under Seoul’s wartime command is another concern that gives Korean conservatives the vapours.
Regardless, OPCON transfer’s stars are aligning on both sides of the Pacific.
In South Korea, the liberal Mr. Lee occupies the presidential Blue House, while his party comfortably controls the National Assembly. This leaves the conservative opposition largely impotent.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is pressuring allies worldwide to increase defence spending and upgrade capabilities. It has made clear it wants Seoul to take an increasing share of the conventional defense burden, while sheltering Korea under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
What is unknown is how far South Korea’s military is proceeding toward satisfying U.S.-set conditions.
“The main thing here is the conditions,” U.S. Forces Commanding General Xavier Brunson said during a webinar organized by the Korea Defense Veterans Association and the Korea-U.S. Alliance Foundation last December. “We cannot say we’re going to slide away from the conditions just so that we can get this done in time.”
Spanish authorities said at least 72 people have died following the mass influx of migrants into the North African enclave of Ceuta, as Madrid stepped up border security and European nations called for stronger protection of the bloc’s external frontiers.
The death toll from the mass migrant influx into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta has risen to 72, local authorities said on Sunday, days after tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco in the territory’s largest-ever migrant surge.
Most of the estimated 60,000 migrants, many of whom swam around the border post or crossed by sea, have since returned to Morocco following the unprecedented influx.
Miguel Angel Perez Triano, the Spanish government’s delegate to Ceuta, said the latest confirmed death toll stood at 72, up from the previously reported 67.
He added that more than 1,000 people had received medical treatment since Thursday. While the situation in Ceuta had improved significantly, officials said efforts to restore normality were still ongoing.
Authorities said many migrants drowned while attempting to swim across the sea, while others were crushed trying to climb the breakwater and border fence. Officials said economic hardship and social media rumours encouraging people to make the crossing had contributed to the mass movement.
Expressing grief over the tragedy, Karima Abenaz, a French national with family in Morocco, said it was heartbreaking to see young people and even infants dying during the dangerous journey.
Meanwhile, Ceuta regional leader Juan Jesus Vivas told El Pais that the city’s morgue had received 88 bodies, a figure that also included people who died in smaller migration attempts over the previous two weeks. He added that Moroccan authorities were also recovering bodies from the sea, although no official figures were available.
Authorities have reinforced police and army patrols and on Saturday installed a 500-metre (1,600-foot) floating barrier off Ceuta.
Twenty-two EU member states wrote a letter asking for coordinated action to protect external borders and other measures after the Ceuta incident. Italy suspended passport-free Schengen travel arrangements with Spain for one month.
Spain has adopted a more open stance on migrants than most other EU countries, introducing a programme to grant residency to more than half a million undocumented people.
It has rejected suggestions that the scheme encouraged the rush into Ceuta, saying that those who entered Ceuta irregularly could not travel on to mainland Spain or elsewhere in the Schengen zone.
At least 38 Nigerien soldiers were reportedly killed in two separate attacks by suspected Islamic State fighters on military positions in Niger, raising fresh concerns over the growing threat posed by extremist groups across the country.
The development was reported by security analyst Zagazola Makama.
According to the report, the latest attack occurred on Friday when suspected Islamic State fighters launched a coordinated assault on a military position at Dankassari, located between Doutchi and Yaya in Dosso Region.
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Makama reported that the attackers overran the forward operating base of the Nigerien Defence and Security Forces, FDS, after intense fighting.
He further said at least 21 soldiers were killed during the attack, while the number of injured or missing personnel had yet to be confirmed.
“The consolidated casualty figure stood at 21 soldiers killed. The number of wounded or missing personnel was not immediately available,” Makama said.
The report stated that the attack came hours after another deadly assault on the town of N’Guigmi in Diffa Region, where 17 members of the Nigerien Defence and Security Forces, including an officer, were reportedly killed in a separate attack also blamed on suspected Islamic State fighters.
According to the report, the two incidents pushed the death toll among Nigerien security personnel on July 31 alone to 38.
Makama noted that the attacks underscore the persistent security challenges confronting Niger despite ongoing military operations targeting extremist groups operating in the Tillabéri, Dosso, Diffa and Tahoua regions.
The report also cited data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, ACLED, showing that at least 5,828 people, including more than 2,000 members of the country’s Defence and Security Forces, have been killed in terrorism-related violence since the military takeover on July 26, 2023.
Russia has charged Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorism over allegations the messenger app has been used for recruitment by Ukrainian secret services.
The FSB – Russia’s domestic security service – said Telegram had been used “to prepare and co-ordinate acts of sabotage and terror” inside Russia and had failed to remove channels, chats and bots used by Ukraine.
An international arrest warrant has been issued for the Russian-born Durov, who lives abroad.
Shortly after the charge was announced, Telegram’s account on X posted an image showing Durov holding up his middle finger. He has previously accused Russian authorities of “fabricating new pretexts to restrict Russians’ access to Telegram”.
Telegram is popular in Russia and is used by tens of millions of people, although authorities have been restricting access as part of a wider crackdown on internet freedom. The app is also popular in Ukraine.
Multi-billionaire Durov, 41, has lived outside of Russia for many years and holds French and United Arab Emirates (UAE) passports.
It is unclear whether other countries or authorities would comply with an arrest warrant issued by Russia.
Durov left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on the platform. He had previously founded popular Russian social media company VKontakte – dubbed the “Facebook of Russia”.
Telegram is used by around 950 million people worldwide and has previously positioned itself as an app focussed on its users’ privacy, rather than the normal policies prioritised by other global social media companies.
The platform has previously faced criticism of its app moderation, but has denied having insufficient practices.
Durov was arrested and placed under formal investigation in France in 2024 over allegations of failure to properly moderate the app to reduce criminality. He was allowed to go home months later, with the investigation continuing.
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