North Korea launched two ballistic missiles, with both believed to have already landed outside Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone, according to NTV

Short-range ballistic missile launches from North Korea are a recurring feature of the geopolitical calendar and have historically produced only fleeting market reactions, with the established pattern being brief bids in the yen, gold and US Treasuries that fade within the session when no damage or escalation follows. The detail that both projectiles landed outside Japan's EEZ places this in the lower-severity category: launches that overfly Japanese territory or land within the EEZ have tended to provoke sharper and more durable safe-haven moves, while sea-splashdown tests are typically treated as routine signalling. The usual sequence is a confirmation from South Korea's Joint Chiefs and Japan's defence ministry on missile type, range and apogee, which determines whether this is a short-range system or something with greater reach, followed by the standard diplomatic condemnations. Precedent shows markets only sustain a risk-off move when a launch coincides with a nuclear test, a major allied military response, or an unusual trajectory; standalone ballistic tests have been absorbed as background noise. Worth noting is the timing against any ongoing regional exercises or diplomatic events, which in past episodes has indicated whether the launch is calibration or provocation. As it stands, the landing detail suggests the routine variant.