Reuters:

North Korea said it conducted “another important” test for reconnaissance satellite systems, state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday, a day after regional military authorities reported the launch of a ballistic missile from the country for the second time in a week.

The launch drew condemnation from governments in the United States, South Korea, and Japan, which fear the North is preparing to conduct a major weapons test in coming months. They see the North’s satellite launches as thinly veiled tests of ballistic missile technology banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions.

North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) and the Academy of Defence Science conducted the launch “under the plan of developing a reconnaissance satellite,” KCNA reported.

It was the second such launch in a week to test satellite equipment, and the ninth missile launch this year.

See also: North Korea Gloats, South Korea Pauses Over Russia’s War In Ukraine

Reuters:

North Korea conducted its ninth weapons test of the year on Saturday, firing a suspected ballistic missile toward the sea to the east of the Korean peninsula just days before South Korea’s presidential election.

The launch drew condemnation from governments in the United States, South Korea, and Japan, which fear the North is preparing to conduct a major weapons test in coming months.

With denuclearisation talks stalled, North Korea conducted a record number of missile launches in January, and after a pause for most of February, resumed tests with a launch on Feb. 27.

ABC News:

The United States and 10 other countries condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch as “unlawful and destabilizing” and urged the U.N. Security Council to condemn it as well because it violates multiple council resolutions.

In a joint statement, the 11 nations urged the 193 U.N. member nations to implement all Security Council resolutions that obligate North Korea to abandon its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs and implement all U.N. sanctions.

North Korea’s neighbors detected a launch Sunday of a missile that flew 300 kilometers (190 miles) and reached 600 kilometers (370 miles) in altitude before landing off North Korea’s eastern coast. North Korean state media, without confirming the launch, said the country had recently tested cameras for a reconnaissance satellite that could photograph Earth from space.

The joint statement from the 11 U.N. members said North Korea has launched several ballistic missile this year in violation of U.N. resolutions.

ABC News:

North Korea said Monday it tested cameras to be installed on a spy satellite, a suggestion that it’ll likely soon conduct a banned long-range rocket launch to modernize its weapons arsenal and apply more pressure on the Biden administration.

The United Nations and others view a satellite launch by North Korea as a cover for tests of missile technology, as ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite lift-offs share similar bodies, engines and other technology. Concerns about a North Korean satellite launch flared after it recently threatened to lift a four-year moratorium on big weapons tests to cope with what it called U.S. hostility.

CNN:

North Korea launched a ballistic missile off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Sunday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The missile was fired from the Sunan area of North Korea at around 7.52 a.m. local time, the Joint Chiefs said.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said North Korea launched “at least one ballistic missile,” that flew a distance of 300 kilometers (186 miles) and to a maximum altitude of 600 kilometers (373 miles).

Sunday’s missile firingis Pyongyang’s first since January 30 local time, when it fired what it claimed was a Hwasong-12 intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM), its longest range ballistic missile since 2017. Sunday’s test was of a missile of shorter range than that test, according to the estimates provided by Japan.

Nikkei Asia:

The Biden administration’s responses to a recent flurry of North Korean ballistic missile tests have been alarmingly feeble and vague. The bitter lessons from President Barack Obama’s misguided “strategic patience” policy, which failed to stop North Korea from developing nuclear arms and missiles, seem to have been lost on the Biden White House.

President Joe Biden appears to be too preoccupied with dealing with security threats posed by Russia and China to adopt any strong stance toward Pyongyang that would risk inviting even more provocations from the secluded regime, which is known for its brinkmanship and has proved loath to pass up any opportunity to boost its bargaining position by cranking up the stakes.

By failing to stand firm against North Korea’s reckless provocations, however, Biden may be repeating the costly strategic blunder committed by Obama.

See also: US, South Korea, Japan Pledge To Counter Threats

NBC News:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Japanese and South Korean counterparts Saturday in Hawaii to discuss the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea after Pyongyang began the year with a series of missile tests.

Blinken said at a news conference after the meeting that North Korea was “in a phase of provocation” and the three countries condemned the recent missile launches.

“We are absolutely united in our approach, in our determination,” Blinken said after his talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong.

He said the countries were “very closely consulting” on further steps they may take in response to North Korea, but didn’t offer specifics.

The Hill:

North Korea gloated on Tuesday about the country’s possession of missiles that would be able to hit the U.S.

“In today’s world where many countries waste time dealing with the United States with submission and blind obedience, there’s only our country on this planet that can shake the world by firing a missile with the U.S. mainland in its range,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said, Reuters reported.

“There are more than 200 countries in the world, but only a few have hydrogen bombs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and hypersonic missiles,” the ministry added.

Al Jazeera:

A United States think-tank says North Korea has built a secret missile operating base near its border with China that is probably intended to house long-range ballistic missiles.

In a new report on Monday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said it identified the Hoejung-ni missile operating base by analysing satellite imagery.

The facility is one of approximately 20 ballistic missile operating bases that North Korea is yet to declare, according to CSIS, and is located in a small, isolated wooded mountain valley in Chagang province, approximately 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) from the Chinese border.

“The Hoejung-ni missile operating base will, according to informed sources, likely house a regiment-sized unit equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs),” it said.

Politico:

North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs including its capability to produce nuclear device components in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, U.N. experts said in a new report.

The panel of experts said in the executive summary of the report obtained Saturday night by The Associated Press that there was “a marked acceleration” of Pyongyang’s testing and demonstration of new short-range and possibly medium-range missiles through January, “incorporating both ballistic and guidance technologies and using both solid and liquid propellants.”

“New technologies tested included a possible hypersonic guiding warhead and a maneuverable re-entry vehicle,” the panel said. North Korea also demonstrated “increased capabilities for rapid deployment, wide mobility (including at sea), and improved resilience of its missile forces.”

The experts said North Korea “continued to seek material, technology and know-how for these programs overseas, including through cyber means and joint scientific research.”

See also: UN Experts: North Korea Stealing Millions In Cyber Attacks

Reuters:

The United States, supported by Britain and France, has asked the U.N. Security Council to meet behind closed-doors on Thursday over North Korea’s launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, diplomats said on Tuesday.

North Korea confirmed on Monday it had launched a Hwasong-12 ballistic missile, the same weapon it had once threatened to target the U.S. territory of Guam with, sparking fears the nuclear-armed state could resume long-range testing.

The launch of the intermediate-range ballistic missile was first reported by South Korean and Japanese authorities on Sunday. It was the seventh test conducted by North Korea last month and the first time a nuclear-capable missile of that size has been launched since 2017.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday condemned the launch and urged Pyongyang “to desist from taking any further counter-productive actions,” a U.N. spokesman said.

NPR:

North Korea confirmed Monday it test-launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. territory of Guam, the North’s most significant weapon launch in years, as Washington plans steps to show its commitment to its Asian allies.

Sunday’s launch could be a prelude to bigger provocations by North Korea such as nuclear and long-range missile tests that pose a direct threat to the U.S. mainland, as the North tries to further pressure the Biden administration to win sanction relief or international recognition as a legitimate nuclear state.

CNN:

A string of provocations from North Korea — including its most powerful ballistic missile test in years over the weekend — could be designed to extract concessions from the United States ahead of potential negotiations, a senior US administration official suggested on Sunday.

“Of course we’re concerned,” the official said of the latest round of launches from North Korea, which have unnerved US allies after a stretch of relative quiet.

The Biden administration has long sought to restart diplomacy with Pyongyang, extending the invitation for talks without any preconditions. While there has been “no serious discussion internally” of a meeting between President Joe Biden and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, officials are eager for talks at a lower level “anytime, any place.”

Yet while officials are confident their messages are being received, they still await a response from North Korea.

As it begins testing missiles at a hurried clip, officials say the new posture could be a way to force the US into a weaker negotiating position.

NPR:

North Korea on Sunday fired what appeared to be the most powerful missile it has tested since U.S. President Joe Biden took office. The launch possibly breached a self-imposed suspension on the testing of longer-range weapons, as it revives its old playbook in brinkmanship to wrest concessions from Washington and neighbors amid a prolonged stalemate in diplomacy.

The Diplomat:

Since Pyongyang rejected the Biden administration’s proposal of diplomatic talks as insufficient to entice Kim Jong Un back to the negotiating table, North Korea seems to have recalibrated its strategy in dealing with the United States. While the North’s end of year report conspicuously condensed the outcome of its review on foreign policy and replaced Kim’s New Year’s Day address, it is expected that North Korea will conduct more advanced weapons tests and hold military parades to draw full attention from the U.S. and the international community in the upcoming months. This can be seen as North Korea’s own style of a “maximum pressure” strategy, meant to change the United States’ fundamental policy toward the country – what Pyongyang calls the “hostile policy” – before restoring the talks.

Al Jazeera:

North Korea conducted tests of an upgraded long-range cruise missile and a warhead of a tactical guided missile this week, as leader Kim Jong Un visited a munitions factory producing a “major weapon system,” state media KCNA reported on Friday.

Tensions have been simmering over North Korea’s series of six weapons tests in 2022, among the largest number of missile launches it has made in a month. The launches have triggered international condemnation and a new sanctions push from the United States.

The New York Times:

North Korea began the year with a spate of missile tests, raising tensions at a sensitive time: China is gearing up to host the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month, and South Korea is preparing for its presidential election on March 9.

The latest flurry of missile tests suggests that ​North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is both pushing ahead with his program of modernizing his country’s missile forces and trying to jolt the Biden administration out of its diplomatic slumber​ and force Washington to engage with North Korea on Mr. Kim’s terms.

In ​the first two weapons tests this month, conducted on Jan. 5 and Jan. 11, ​North Korea launched what it called hypersonic ballistic missiles with detachable gliding warheads, which made them harder to intercept because they ​were designed not only to fly extremely fast but also to change course during flight.

Reuters:

North Korea fired two cruise missiles into the sea off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, amid rising tension over a recent series of weapons tests.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not specify the missiles’ range or trajectory, but said it was conducting an analysis together with U.S. authorities.

The launch was North Korea’s fifth of the year, following tests of a tactical guided missile, two “hypersonic missiles” capable of high speed and manoeuvring after lift-off, and a railway-borne missile system.