North Korea fired more than a dozen short-range ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan on Oct 29, 2026, and they are believed to have already come down. South Korea's military said the launch happened around 12:30 p.m. from the Wonsan area on North Korea's east coast.
Japanese government officials said the missiles appear to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, the waters where a coastal state holds rights to resources under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. No damage has been confirmed.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said an emergency response team of officials from the relevant ministries and agencies was summoned to the crisis management center at the prime minister's office immediately after the launch.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed the ministries to do everything possible to gather and analyze information, and to give the public prompt and accurate updates.
What the launch means
A volley of this size is unusual for a single launch event. North Korea has fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles in one salvo before, but a barrage of more than a dozen from a single area is a larger display than most recent tests. The missiles fell in waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, well short of Japan's coast.
Japan's exclusive economic zone extends 200 nautical miles from its coastline, and any missile landing inside it would raise a sharper response from Tokyo. Falls outside that line are still tracked and publicized by the government.
The launch came as Takaichi's government manages a crowded political calendar. She has faced questions over a social media post about older people working and over her absence from a G7 online meeting, both of which drew criticism in Japanese media on the same day.
Response and next steps
The emergency team at the prime minister's office is the standard first move when a missile launch is detected. Its job is to coordinate information across the defense, foreign and other ministries and to keep the prime minister's office informed in real time.
The government has not said whether it will file a protest through diplomatic channels. Officials said they were still analyzing the launch, including the type of missiles fired and their flight paths.