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North Korea test-fires a 240mm guided multiple rocket launcher in May 2024, as shown in images released by the Korean Central News Agency. / Source: Yonhap News & KCNA

North Korea fired more than ten multiple launch rockets into the West Sea on November 3, just minutes before South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Kyu-baek and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth met at the Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on November 4.

According to the JCS, the launches took place around 4 p.m. — about 30 minutes before the two defense chiefs’ scheduled meeting at the JSA. The projectiles are believed to have been 240mm multiple rocket launchers (MRLs), capable of striking targets up to 60 kilometers away. If fired from Kaesong, they would fall within range of the greater Seoul metropolitan area.

The JCS assessed that Pyongyang’s move was a calculated provocation, closely timed to the high-profile visit by the top South Korean and U.S. defense officials to the inter-Korean border zone.

Just two days earlier, on November 1, North Korea had also fired around ten similar projectiles into the same western waters — roughly ten minutes after President Lee Jae-myung began his summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Recent incidents suggest Pyongyang is staging deliberate provocations to assert its presence during South Korea’s series of major diplomatic events. On October 22, North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), believed to be from the Hwasong-11Da series, from the Chunghwa area of North Hwanghae Province toward the northeast. On October 28, a day before U.S. President Donald Trump’s arrival in Seoul calling for renewed dialogue with Pyongyang, the regime test-fired strategic ship-to-ground cruise missiles over the West Sea.