North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles as State Media Remains Silent
3 sources across 2 countries · South Korea · Taiwan · 1 of them is linked to a state
Who reported this
- Yonhap
- The Korea Herald
- Taipei Times
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
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North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea on Saturday. The launch occurred one day after South Korea, the United States, and Japan concluded trilateral military exercises. South Korean military officials reported that the missiles were detected around 5:20 a.m. and flew approximately 250 kilometers. South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities tracked the missiles and shared the information with Japan.
North Korean state media, including the Korean Central News Agency and the Rodong Sinmun, made no mention of the launches as of Sunday morning. This continues a pattern of silence following similar launches on August 6, August 12, and August 20. Typically, Pyongyang uses state media to publicize such events the following day, particularly when leader Kim Jong-un is involved.
The launches come amid a complex diplomatic backdrop. U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed intentions to meet with Kim Jong-un later this year, following three summits held during his first term. While center and center-right reports emphasize the silence of state media in the context of these conciliatory signals, center-left reporting highlights that Trump previously described joint military drills as inappropriate and hostile, leading to a scaled-back version of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- Emphasized the tension surrounding joint military exercises and the impact of President Trump's criticism of those drills.
- Centre
- Focused on the unusual silence of North Korean state media and the potential for future diplomatic meetings.
- Centre-right
- Highlighted the pattern of state media silence and the history of summits between the U.S. and North Korea.
Sources
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