US says North Korea missile launch poses no immediate threat, 'consulting closely' with allies

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command vowed Thursday that the U.S. "remains committed to the defence of the U.S. homeland and our allies successful the region" aft North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile.

The motorboat of the short-range ballistic rocket unfolded up of large-scale, yearly exercises to beryllium conducted by the U.S. and South Korean militaries aboriginal this month. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said a projectile from North Korea's eastbound Wonsan country was detected astir 5 p.m. section time.

"We are alert of the rocket motorboat and are consulting intimately with our allies and partners. Based connected existent assessments, this lawsuit does not airs an contiguous menace to U.S. unit oregon territory, oregon to our allies," U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said successful a statement.

"The United States remains committed to the defence of the U.S. homeland and our allies successful the region," it added.

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North Korea test-fired a short-range ballistic rocket connected Aug. 5, 2026. The Hwasong-11LA ground-to-ground tactical short-range ballistic rocket is seen being test-fired astatine an undisclosed determination connected April 19, 2026, according to the Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA/Reuters)

South Korea's subject bolstered its surveillance posture and is intimately coordinating with the U.S. and Japan successful the aftermath of the event, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the rocket landed successful the waters disconnected North Korea's eastbound seashore and that determination were nary reports that the limb reached Japanese territory.

Koizumi added that North Korea's repeated rocket launches airs a menace to Japan and the portion and that Tokyo lodged a protestation to Pyongyang done their embassies successful Beijing. South Korea's statesmanlike nationalist information assembly called the North Korean motorboat "a provocation" that violates U.N. Security Council resolutions and urged the North to halt it.

It was North Korea's archetypal ballistic rocket motorboat since precocious June, erstwhile it tested a tactical ballistic rocket with a "special mission" warhead and different weapons. After watching the investigating activities, person Kim Jong Un said astatine the clip that the subject needed to bolster its "deadly and destructive violative posture."

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North Korean person Kim Jong Un observes strategical cruise and anti-warship missiles test-fired from the destroyer Choe Hyon connected Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Korean Central News Agency/Reuters)

South Korean and U.S. officials haven't yet released details astir this year's Ulchi Freedom Shield associated exercise, but the drills are typically held successful the second fractional of August.

"This yearly workout aims to physique knowing betwixt Combined Forces Command, United States Forces Korea, the United Nations Command, and ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), ROK authorities agency, ensuring their quality to fortify the combined defence posture and heighten Alliance effect capabilities against a spectrum of information threats," United States Forces Korea said astir the exercises connected its website.

"It volition diagnostic live, virtual, constructive and field-based training, engaging unit from the assorted subject services," it added.

U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Division enactment successful a stream crossing workout arsenic portion of the Ulchi Freedom Shield workout connected Aug. 27, 2025, successful Yeoju-gun, South Korea. The 11-day workout is simply a regular associated subject workout betwixt U.S. and South Korean troops to hole for imaginable emergencies connected the Korean Peninsula. (Getty Images)

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U.S. and South Korean officials accidental the grooming is antiaircraft successful nature, but North Korea says the maneuvers are a signifier penetration and often responds with rocket tests, according to The Associated Press.

Fox News' Liz Friden and The Associated Press contributed to this report.