North Korea fires ballistic missiles in first test of 2026

Seoul — North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles off its east coast on Sunday, Seoul’s military said, its first launch of the year just hours before South Korea’s leader heads to China for a summit. Sunday’s launch follows a US military operation against Pyongyang’s socialist ally Venezuela that snatched President Nicolas Maduro out of his country — for decades a nightmare scenario for North Korea’s leadership, which has long accused Washington of seeking to remove it from power. Seoul’s defense ministry said it had detected “several projectiles, presumed to be ballistic missiles” fired from near the North Korean capital Pyongyang…