Key facts
- North Korean state media remained silent on ballistic missile launches conducted on Saturday, September 12, 2026.
- The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and Rodong Sinmun newspaper did not report on the launches.
- This silence follows a pattern observed since early August, with state media also omitting reports of previous launches.
- The missiles were fired from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea.
- The launches occurred a day after South Korea, the United States, and Japan concluded a trilateral military exercise.
- The silence comes amid conciliatory signals from U.S. President Donald Trump towards North Korea.
North Korean state media on Sunday, September 13, 2026, made no mention of the multiple short-range ballistic missiles fired a day earlier, continuing a pattern of silence over its missile launches that began in early August. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and the Rodong Sinmun, the country's most widely read newspaper, had not reported on the launches as of Sunday morning.
On Saturday, September 12, North Korea fired the missiles from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea. This occurred just a day after South Korea, the United States, and Japan concluded a trilateral military exercise.
North Korean state media also remained silent on previous launches on August 6, August 12, and August 20, 2026, which followed South Korea and the United States staging their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise. The North has typically used its state media to publicize its ballistic missile launches the following day, especially when leader Kim Jong-un has overseen them.
The current silence comes amid conciliatory signals toward Pyongyang from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has expressed his intention to meet Kim later this year. Trump met with Kim three times during his first term: in June 2018 in Singapore, February 2019 in Hanoi, and June 2019 at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom.