North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles off east coast; Japan says outside EEZ

Analysis
Sunday's dawn launch from Sinpho, not road-mobile TELs, is the critical signal: corroborated across Al Jazeera, NK News, Japan Times, and PM Takaichi's statement, the venue confirms activity on North Korea's solid-fuel SLBM program, adding a sea-based leg that complicates Japan's Aegis-Ashore siting debate due to reopen by summer. The April tempo is consistent with Kim's standard cadence, but the Sinpho provenance and Sunday timing immediately after the Balikatan announcement mark a deliberate shift in signature, very likely a coordinated demonstration targeting both Seoul's new administration and the Takaichi government within the coming week. US attention diversion is a factor but not decisive; Pyongyang runs these campaigns independent of Middle East tempo. A competing reading is that the shot is a pre-test validation run for SLBM component transfer to Russia, a pipeline CSIS imagery has tracked through Nampo since February.