North Korea Fires Multiple Missiles Toward Sea of Japan Hours After Kim Yo Jong Rules Out Talks With US

Since Binance disclosed on Friday, Oct. 30 that hackers had stolen more than $6 billion and the FBI pinned the theft on North Korea's TraderTraitor group, Pyongyang has answered the allegation with denials. On Wednesday, Nov. 4, it added missiles.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected several missiles fired from the Sondok area on North Korea's eastern coast toward the Sea of Japan. South Korean and U.S. authorities are analyzing the details of the launches. The Joint Chiefs said Seoul remains ready to repel any provocation.

It was North Korea's fourth weapons launch in a month.

Kim Yo Jong closes the door on talks

The launches came hours after Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un and a senior official, issued a new statement. She called the FBI announcement "an extension of Washington's invariable hostile policy toward" North Korea.

"It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons," she said. "The choice for peace includes dialogue of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us."

She ruled out dialogue until the U.S. abandons what she calls its hostile policy. The day before, she had dismissed the FBI's attribution as "a trite provocation." In an earlier statement she called it a "grave political provocation" and "absurd rhetoric and nothing new," noting that Washington also blamed Pyongyang for last year's $1.5 billion Bybit hack.

North Korea denies any role in the Binance theft. The FBI says TraderTraitor, the same group it tied to Bybit, orchestrated it.

A week of weapons announcements

The missile launch was not the only military news from Pyongyang this week. State media KCNA said North Korea tested strategic cruise missiles fitted with a new cluster-munition warhead. It claimed the "middle-sized dispersal warhead" can destroy a target area of 5 to 6 hectares.

A North Korean official quoted by KCNA said the test was conducted "because our armed forces should defend the security of the country and deter all sorts of threats."

KCNA also released a photo of a warship under construction at the Nampho Shipyard, likely the country's largest naval vessel. It said Kim Jong Un expressed satisfaction with the ship, which it called "incomparably huge" next to the country's 5,000-ton destroyers. Kim has previously said North Korea plans to build a 10,000-ton strategic guided missile cruiser.

Recent tests have also included a submarine-launched ballistic missile, hypersonic missiles, attack drones and cluster bombs designed to be carried by ballistic missiles.

The diplomacy behind the launches

Trump said in August that he plans to meet Kim Jong Un later this year. He said it was important to "get along" with Kim, and he said Pyongyang has 57 "very powerful" nuclear weapons. Their 2019 talks ended abruptly over disagreements about North Korea's nuclear program.

Observers cited by The Associated Press say North Korea is likely pressing Washington to drop what it calls its hostility and offer concessions as the price of restoring ties between Trump and Kim. Analysts have described the accelerated testing this year as a bid for leverage in any future diplomacy.

In October, the U.S., South Korea and Japan again called for the "complete denuclearisation" of North Korea. Pyongyang has shown no interest in that goal.

The money question

Michael Bosack, founding director of the Parley Policy Institute and a former UN Command official, told Agence France-Presse that the stolen sum equals "nearly a quarter of the DPRK's estimated annual GDP." He said North Korea likely felt compelled to respond because of the international attention on the hack.

Bosack said the denial is aimed at keeping open the channels through which North Korea could launder and use the cryptocurrency. "If external parties start closing doors based on the international heat on the matter, then the stolen cryptocurrency does nothing to support the Kim regime's near-term priorities," he said.

A 2024 UN report said proceeds from North Korean cyberattacks had "reportedly helped to fund the country's development of weapons of mass destruction."

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for a "comprehensive prevention system" against cyberattacks. He said security centered on inspections and responses after incidents has "revealed clear limitations."

Tension on the peninsula

Relations between the two Koreas have also worsened since mine blasts at the border in September wounded three South Korean soldiers. Seoul accused North Korea of burying the mines south of the border and demanded an apology. Pyongyang denies responsibility and has warned of retaliation if provoked.

The launches came as U.S. midterm votes were still being counted. Seoul and Washington have not yet said what type of missiles were fired or how far they flew.

It is unclear whether the Trump-Kim meeting the president announced in August can proceed. Kim Yo Jong's statement ties dialogue to a change in U.S. policy, and Washington has not said whether it will alter its position on the hack attribution or on denuclearization.