SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Thursday its testing spree this week involved various new weapons systems, including ballistic missiles armed with cluster-bomb warheads, as it pushes to expand nuclear-capable forces aimed at rival South Korea.
The report by North Korean state media came a day after South Korea’s military said it detected North Korea firing multiple missiles from an eastern coastal area in its second round of launches in two days.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the tests lasted three days starting Monday and also included demonstrations of anti-aircraft weapons, purported electromagnetic weapons systems and carbon-fiber bombs.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles launched Wednesday flew 240 to 700 kilometers (150 to 434 miles) before falling into the sea, and that it also detected at least one projectile launched Tuesday from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said none of the weapons fired Wednesday entered waters within its exclusive economic zone, while the U.S. military said the North Korean launches on Tuesday and Wednesday posed no immediate threat to the United States or its allies.
KCNA said the latest tests included demonstrations of cluster-munition warhead systems mounted on the nuclear-capable Hwasong-11 ballistic missiles, which resemble Russia’s Iskander missiles in their design for low-altitude, maneuverable flight to evade missile defense systems. The report said the launches confirmed that the short-range missile, when armed with such warheads, “can reduce to ashes any target covering an area of 6.5-7 hectares (16 to 17.2 acres) with the highest-density power.”
Jang Do-young, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing that the military was analyzing the launches while sharing information with U.S. and Japanese counterparts, but declined to provide specific assessments about the North’s claims of progress in its military capabilities.
The launches underscored continuing tensions between the Koreas, blunting South Korean hopes for warmer relations.
In a statement Tuesday night, Jang Kum Chol, a first vice minister at Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, said South Korea would always remain the North’s “most hostile enemy state” and mocked Seoul’s liberal government for seeking to revive restore long-stalled dialogue, calling its officials “world-startling fools.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suspended virtually all diplomacy with Seoul and Washington since the collapse of his nuclear talks with President Donald Trump in 2019, and has since accelerated the development of nuclear-capable missiles that threaten U.S. allies in Asia as well as the U.S. mainland.
Kim has also pursued closer ties with Russia, China and other countries embroiled in confrontations with the United States as he looks to break out of isolation and strengthen his regional footing. North Korean state media says Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will arrive in the country on Thursday for a two-day trip in the latest round of diplomacy between the countries.
A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran appeared to hang by a thread Wednesday after the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. The White House demanded that the channel be reopened and sought to keep peace talks on track.
The U.S. and Iran both claimed victory after reaching the agreement, and world leaders expressed relief, even as more drones and missiles hit Iran and Gulf Arab countries. At the same time, Israel intensified its attacks on the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, hitting commercial and residential areas in Beirut. At least 182 people were killed Wednesday in the deadliest day of fighting there.
The fresh violence threatened to scuttle what U.S. Vice President JD Vance called a “fragile” deal.
The Iranian parliament speaker said planned talks were “unreasonable” because Washington broke three of Tehran’s 10 conditions for an end to the fighting. In a social media post, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf objected to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah, an alleged drone incursion into Iranian airspace after the ceasefire took effect and U.S. refusal to accept any Iranian enrichment capabilities in a final agreement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that an end to the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump said the truce did not cover Lebanon. When the deal was announced, Pakistan's prime minister, whose country served as a mediator, said in a social media post that it applied to “everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere.”
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes killed 182 people on Wednesday, the highest single-day death toll in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
“The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” Iran's Araghchi said in a post on X. “The ball is in the U.S. court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, reported in Iranian state media, was “completely unacceptable.” She repeated Trump’s “expectation and demand” that the channel be reopened.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said American and Israeli forces had achieved a “capital V military victory” and that the Iranian military no longer posed a significant threat to U.S. forces or the region. The Iranian military said the country forced Israel and the U.S. to accept its "proposed conditions and surrender.”
Much about the agreement was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms.
Iran said the deal would allow it to formalize its new practice of charging ships passing through the strait, a crucial transit lane for oil. The White House said Trump is opposed to tolls for ship passage through the strait.
Only 11 vessels moved through the strait Wednesday, roughly the same as in prior days, according to Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. Iran was requiring shippers to pay tolls of up to $1 a barrel for outbound oil, it said. The largest supertankers carry up to 3 million barrels of crude.
The fate of Iran's missile and nuclear programs — the elimination of which were major objectives for the U.S. and Israel in going to war — also remained unclear. Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to remove buried enriched uranium, though Iran did not confirm that.
Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” plan that could help end the war that the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28. But when a version in Farsi emerged indicating Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium — key to building a nuclear weapon — Trump called it fraudulent.
Leavitt said a plan that Iran presented Tuesday could “align with our own” proposal for peace.
The White House said Vance would lead American negotiators at upcoming peace talks, which could begin in Pakistan as soon as Friday.
Iran’s demands for ending the war include a withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from the region, the lifting of sanctions and the release of its frozen assets.
Meanwhile, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Israel will continue to “utilize every operational opportunity” to strike Hezbollah. The Israeli military said it struck more than 100 targets within 10 minutes Wednesday across Lebanon, the largest wave of strikes since March 1.
Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit accused Israel of “persistently seeking to sabotage” the ceasefire deal.
Hezbollah has not confirmed if it will abide by the ceasefire, though the group has said it was open to giving mediators a chance to secure an agreement.
Early on Thursday Hezbollah said it had fired rockets at northern Israel and would continue doing so “until the Israeli-American aggression against our country and our people ceases."
Iranian attacks and threats deterred many commercial ships from using the strait, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime. That roiled the world economy and raised the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.
The ceasefire may formalize a system of charging fees in the strait that Iran instituted — and give it a new source of revenue.
That would upend decades of precedent treating the strait as an international waterway that was free to transit. Such a shift would likely be unacceptable to the Gulf Arab states, which also need to rebuild after repeated Iranian attacks targeting their oil fields.
U.S.-Israeli strikes have battered Iran and its leadership, but they have not eliminated the threats posed by Tehran's nuclear program, its ballistic missiles or its support for regional proxies, like Hezbollah. The U.S. and Israel said addressing those threats was a key justification for going to war.
Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran to “dig up and remove” enriched uranium. There was no confirmation from Iran.
Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing Wednesday that the U.S. would do “something like” last June's joint strikes with Israel on Iranian nuclear sites if Iran refuses to surrender its enriched uranium voluntarily.
Netanyahu warned in a televised address that Israel was “ready to return to fighting at any time. Our finger is on the trigger.”
Tehran has insisted for years that its nuclear program was peaceful, although it has enriched uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.
Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all issued warnings about incoming missiles from Iran. That fire stopped for a time, then hostilities appeared to restart.
An oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island came under attack, according to Iranian state television. A short time later, the UAE's air defenses fired at an incoming Iranian missile barrage.
More than 1,900 people had been killed in Iran as of late March, but the government has not updated the toll for days.
In Lebanon, more than 1,700 people have been killed, and 1 million people have been displaced. Twelve Israeli soldiers have died.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Magdy from Cairo and Metz from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem, Abby Sewell and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Mike Catalini in Trenton, N.J., and Michelle L. Price, Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller, Michael Biesecker and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
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This story corrects overall death toll in Lebanon on Wednesday to 182.
First responders search at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises following several Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A first responder emerges through the smoke at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A woman is assisted at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man feeds birds on a street in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Displaced children sit on a truck with their packed belongings as they wait for an official ceasefire decision between Iran and the United States that they hope will include Lebanon and allow them to return to their villages, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during a gathering after announcement of a two-week ceasefire with the United States and Israel, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A government supporter chants slogans during a gathering after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with the United States and Israel in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People check the damage of a coffeeshop at the site of an Israeli strike in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Wednesday, April, 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Men carry the coffins with the bodies of Pierre Mouawad, an official with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, and his wife during their funeral in Yahshush, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
The White House is seen in Washington, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. EDT. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
An Iranian cluster munition missile explodes in the sky over northern Israel, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Activists protest near the White House in Washington, Tuesday evening, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Pro-government demonstrators chant slogans as they hold Iranian flags and a poster of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in a gathering after announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the war with the United States and Israel, at the Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, Square, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
