North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles as South Korea, US launch joint military drills. It is the North’s first known ballistic missile test since US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. South Korea and the US launched their annual Freedom Shield exercise on Monday for an 11-day run. North Korea has long denounced the allies’ joint exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion against it and has a track record of staging weapons tests in response.. It released back-to-back statements denouncing the latest joint drills, threatening that Seoul and Washington will pay a \”horrible\” price for their \”dangerous provocative act\” The North last fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on January 14. Last week, Pyongyang slammed the United States for \”political and military provocations\” over the visit of a US Navy aircraft carrier to the South Korean port of Busan. The U.S. and South Korea have rejected accusations of invasion rehearsals, describing their joint drills as defensive in nature, Yonhap news agency reported.