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North Korea Fires Short-range Ballistic Missile

This photo provided by the North Korean government shows what it says is an artillery drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (Uncredited/KCNA via KNS)
This photo provided by the North Korean government shows what it says is an artillery drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (Uncredited/KCNA via KNS)
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North Korea Fires Short-range Ballistic Missile

This photo provided by the North Korean government shows what it says is an artillery drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (Uncredited/KCNA via KNS)
This photo provided by the North Korean government shows what it says is an artillery drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea, Thursday, March 9, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP) (Uncredited/KCNA via KNS)

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile towards the sea off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Sunday, according to South Korea and Japan, the latest in a barrage of weapons tests from the nuclear-armed state.

The missile, launched from the Dongchang-ri site on the west coast around 11:05 a.m. (0205 GMT), flew some 800 km (500 miles) before hitting a target, according to a South Korean military statement. Japan's Defense Ministry said the missile flew as high as 50 km (30 miles).

Seoul has condemned the recent ballistic missile launches by the North as a "clear violation" of a UN Security Council resolution.

Soon after the launch, South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said the US deployed a B-1B strategic bomber to a joint air drill, which Seoul and Washington say they are holding to strengthen extended deterrence.

The launches have also prompted criticism from Tokyo and Washington.

"North Korea's behavior threatens international peace and security, and is unacceptable," Japan's state minister of defense, Toshiro Ino, told a news conference, adding Japan had protested strongly via North Korea's embassy in Beijing.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said Sunday's launch does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or its allies. But the recent missile launches highlight the destabilizing impact of Pyongyang's unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, Reuters quoted it as saying in a statement.

The North on Thursday fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, hours before South Korea's president flew to Tokyo for a summit that discussed ways to counter the North.

Pyongyang said Thursday's ICBM launch was a warning against the US-South Korea military drills, state media KCNA reported.

South Korean and American forces kicked off the 11-day drills, dubbed "Freedom Shield 23", a week ago on a scale not seen since 2017.

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Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
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Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Australia will not commit troops in advance to any conflict, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Sunday, responding to a report that the Pentagon has pressed its ally to clarify what role it would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan.

Australia prioritizes its sovereignty and "we don't discuss hypotheticals", Conroy said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance but by the government of the day," he said.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Elbridge Colby, the US under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pressing Australian and Japanese officials on what they would do in a Taiwan conflict, although the US does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan.

Colby posted on X that the Department of Defense is implementing President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda of restoring deterrence, which includes "urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense".

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking in Shanghai at the start of a six-day visit to China that is likely to focus on security and trade, said Canberra did not want any change to the status quo on Taiwan.

Conroy said Australia was concerned about China's military buildup of nuclear and conventional forces, and wants a balanced Indo-Pacific region where no country dominates. He said China was seeking a military base in the Pacific, which was not in Australia's interest, Reuters reported.

'GOAL IS NO WAR'

Talisman Sabre, Australia's largest war-fighting exercise with the United States, opened on Sunday on Sydney Harbour and will involve 40,000 troops from 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, India, Britain, France and Canada.

Conroy said China's navy might be watching the exercise to collect information, as it had done in the past.

The war games will span thousands of kilometers from Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island to the Coral Sea on Australia's east coast, in a rehearsal of joint war fighting, said Vice Admiral Justin Jones, chief of joint operations for the Australian Defense Force.

The air, sea, land and space exercises over two weeks will "test our ability to move our forces into the north of Australia and operate from Australia", Jones told reporters.

"I will leave it to China to interpret what 19 friends, allies and partners wanting to operate together in the region means to them. But for me... it is nations that are in search of a common aspiration for peace, stability, a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.

US Army Lieutenant General Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general for the Pacific, said Talisman Sabre would improve the readiness of militaries to respond together and was "a deterrent mechanism because our ultimate goal is no war".

"If we could do all this alone and we could go fast, but because we want to go far, we have to do it together and that is important because of the instability that is resident in the region," Vowell said.

The United States is Australia's major security ally. Although Australia does not permit foreign bases, the US military is expanding its rotational presence and fuel stores on Australian bases, which from 2027 will have US Virginia submarines at port in Western Australia.