South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement it detected several ballistic missile launches from North Korea's capital region around 7:50 a.m. It stated that the missiles flew approximately 560 miles and that South Korean and U.S. authorities were analyzing the details of the launches.

Ju Ae has been making increasingly prominent appearances in state media in recent years, fueling speculation that she is being prepared as Kim’s successor.

SEOUL – President Lee Jae Myung’s four-day state visit to China is less a deal-making summit than an exploration of how Seoul and Beijing can steady their relationship under the growing constraints of US-China strategic competition and an increasingly volatile regional security landscape.