North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile into East Sea After US Arrests Venezuelan President, Experts Say Kim Jong-un is Anxious

North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Sunday, a move analysts said underscored the unease of its leader, Kim Jong-un, after the United States arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a Saturday raid.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were launched from an area near Pyongyang around 7:50 a.m. and flew about 900 kilometers before falling into the East Sea, quoted from The Korea Times (4/1).

The South Korean military said it was maintaining a high level of readiness.

The launch marked North Korea's first missile provocation this year. Its last test was on November 7, 2025, when it fired a short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea.

Analysts said the timing of the launch appeared to have been carefully calculated, a day after the Donald Trump administration launched a sudden military operation in Venezuela.

The operation was followed by the arrest of President Maduro and his wife, who were then taken to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, according to US authorities.

President Trump said Washington would temporarily lead the Latin American country during the transition.

Meanwhile, Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Woman's University, argues that the Venezuelan events have made the North Korean leader uneasy.

"Hostile regime leaders will likely live with greater paranoia after seeing how quickly Maduro was extracted from his country to be tried in the United States," he said.

The Trump administration's operations in Venezuela could further strengthen Leader Kim's assumption that abandoning nuclear weapons could lead to a fate similar to President Maduro.

"Maduro's arrest will likely strengthen Kim Jong-un's belief that giving up nuclear weapons is tantamount to suicide. This will make negotiations on denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula more difficult," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies.

He added that this could also make North Korea's behavior more difficult to predict, as the regime could further accelerate the development and deployment of tactical nuclear weapons and guided missiles on a large scale.

Observers have also linked Pyongyang's response to its long-standing relationship with Venezuela, a country seen as a friendly state. It is known that North Korea and Venezuela established diplomatic relations in 1974.

Relations between the two countries have grown closer during the Kim Jong-un regime, with North Korea opening its embassy in Caracas in 2015 and Venezuela establishing an embassy in Pyongyang in 2019.

From Kim's perspective, this latest episode sets another precedent for a foreign leader ousted by the US, following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

The latest missile launch appears to be intended to underscore North Korea's self-proclaimed status as a "nuclear weapons state," reflecting Pyongyang's concerns that Washington could take a similar approach to North Korea if nuclear negotiations fail.

Hours after the launch, South Korea's National Security Office held an emergency meeting attended by senior foreign affairs and military officials.

The office condemned the missile test as a provocative act that violated UN Security Council resolutions and urged Pyongyang to immediately stop such actions.

Sunday's missile launch also comes ahead of a summit between South Korean and Chinese leaders scheduled for Monday, where North Korea is expected to be on the agenda as Seoul urges Beijing to play a more active role in denuclearization efforts.