North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea Wednesday in its second launch event in two days, South Korea’s military said, hours after a senior North Korean official released crude insults against Seoul’s hopes for warmer relations.

South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said several missiles lifted off from North Korea’s eastern coastal Wonsan area on Wednesday morning and flew about 240 kilometers (150 miles) each in a direction toward the North’s eastern waters. It said an additional North Korean ballistic missile fired later Wednesday traveled more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) off the North's east coast.

South Korea's military said it maintains a readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea under a solid military alliance with the United States. It earlier said it detected the launch of an unidentified projectile from North Korea’s capital region Tuesday.

South Korean media reported the projectile, also likely a ballistic missile, disappeared from South Korean military radars after displaying an abnormal development in the initial launch stage. This indicated the launch ended in failure, according to the reports.

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The back-to-back launches came after North Korea made it clear that it has no intention of improving ties with South Korea, whose liberal government has steadfastly expressed its hopes to restore long-dormant dialogue.

On Tuesday night, Jang Kum Chol, first vice minister at Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry, said South Korea would always remain North Korea's "most hostile enemy state." He derided South Korea as "world-startling fools" engaged in wishful thinking over a recent statement by Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

After South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret over alleged civilian drone flights into North Korea, Kim Yo Jong late Monday praised him for what she called honesty and courage, but reiterated a threat to retaliate if such flights recur. South Korean officials responded by describing Kim Yo Jong’s statement as meaningful progress in relations.

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Jang said her statement was intended as a warning. He cited Kim Yo Jong as calling South Korea "the dogs affected by mange that blindly bark to the tune of neighboring dogs" as she criticized it for recently co-sponsoring a U.N. resolution on the North’s purported human rights violations.

North Korea has refused to return to talks with South Korea and the U.S. and pushed to expand its nuclear arsenal since Kim Jong Un’s diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. North Korea has instead sought to strengthen ties with Russia, China and other countries embroiled in confrontations with the U.S. Last September, Kim Jong Un traveled to Beijing to attend a military parade alongside other foreign leaders and held his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in six years.

North Korea’s state media said Wednesday that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit North Korea on Thursday for a two-day trip.

NORTH KOREA TESTS SOLID-FUEL MISSILE ENGINE AS KIM BOOSTS THREAT TO US MAINLAND
 

Earlier this week, North Korea said Kim Jong Un had observed a test of an upgraded solid-fuel engine for weapons and called it a significant development boosting his country’s strategic military arsenal.

Missiles with built-in solid propellants are easier to move and conceal their launches than liquid-fuel weapons, which in general must be fueled before liftoff and cannot last long.

South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Monday the engine test was likely related to an effort to build a more powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile that can carry multiple nuclear warheads, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting.

Experts say North Korea wants multi-warhead missiles to penetrate U.S. missile defenses, but they doubt Pyongyang has mastered the technology needed to acquire such a weapon.

An investigation has exposed a nearly $20 million insurance scam in Nepal involving guides who allegedly fake or induce mountainside rescues, including by lacing the food of some hikers near Mt. Everest, according to a report by The Kathmandu Post.

Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal, where some adventurous individuals go to climb Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. 

The mountain sits on the border of Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

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The Kathmandu Post reported that after it highlighted the fraud in 2018, the government established a fact-finding committee, issued a 700-page report and declared reforms. 

But last year, the Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) reopened the matter and discovered that the fraud was increasing.

The outlet indicated that the CIB probe points out two main fraudulent scenarios.

One involves guides suggesting to tired adventurers who do not want to walk back that if they feign illness, a chopper will pick them up, according to The Kathmandu Post.

The outlet reported that, in the other scenario, guides and hotel staff, according to the CIB probe, have been coached to scare trekkers at high altitude, where altitude sickness can occur. They allegedly claim that the trekkers are in danger of dying and that only immediate evacuation will spare them. 

In some instances, investigators discovered that Diamox (acetazolamide) tablets, utilized to prevent altitude sickness, were given in conjunction with excessive water intake to cause the symptoms that would give grounds for a rescue, the outlet reported. 

In at least one instance noted in the investigation, guides allegedly laced food with baking powder to cause people to be unwell, the outlet stated.

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Police recorded a case in which four individuals were picked up on one chopper flight, but insurance claims were filed as more than one separate rescue, the report noted.

The framework tying the system of mass fraud together was detailed in police interrogations, according to the outlet, which reported that hospitals shell out 20% to 25% of the insurance money to trekking businesses and 20% to 25% to chopper rescue operators in return for patient referrals. 

Trekking guides and their businesses get a boost from inflated invoices, the outlet suggested. In some instances, tourists are offered money to join in the scam, The Kathmandu Post added.

In the period between 2022 and 2025, investigators found a whopping 4,782 foreign patients serviced at implicated hospitals, with 171 cases verified as fraudulent rescues, the outlet reported. During that span, Era International Hospital raked in deposits of over $15.87 million for such activities and Shreedhi International Hospital got more than $1.22 million, the outlet reported.

Mountain Rescue Service carried out 171 fake rescues from an overall 1,248 charter flights, scoring around $10.31 million from insurers, the outlet reported, adding that Nepal Charter Service executed 75 fake rescues out of 471 flights, claiming $8.2 million. Everest Experience and Assistance was allegedly tied to 71 suspicious rescues out of 601 flights, with claims of $11.04 million.

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CIB charged 32 people last month with offenses against the state and organized crime, the outlet reported, noting that nine individuals were arrested while others were said to be absconding.

Individuals from Mountain Helicopters, Altitude Air and Manang Air, which was rebranded as Basecamp Helicopters, as well as physicians and administrators with Swacon International Hospital, Shreedhi International Hospital and Era International Hospital were among the individuals who have been charged, the outlet indicated.

An Iranian ship offloaded more than 200 members of its crew to Sri Lanka on Friday after suffering an engine failure at sea, just days after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in an Indian Ocean torpedo attack. 

The IRIS Bushehr, described in previous Iranian media reports as a navy logistics ship, is being brought first to the port of Colombo, according to Sri Lanka navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath. Sailors are being taken to a naval base in Welisara following medical exams and immigration procedures. 

"We have to understand that this is not an ordinary situation," Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said Thursday. "It’s a request by a ship belonging to one party to enter into our port. We have to consider that according to the international treaties and conventions." 

Dissanayake added that authorities decided to take control of the IRIS Bushehr following discussions with Iranian officials and the ship’s captain, after one of its engines failed. He said some crew members would remain on board to help the Sri Lankan navy later navigate the vessel to Trincomalee on the island’s northeast coast, about 165 miles from Colombo.

NEW SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW FIRES, NAVAL BASE DAMAGE ACROSS IRAN AFTER US-ISRAELI STRIKES

The moves come after the U.S. sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka’s coast on Wednesday.  

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said it was "the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II." 

The Indian navy said Thursday that it had initiated search and rescue operations after receiving a distress signal from the Dena, deploying two aircraft along with a sailing training vessel. By the time the response was launched, the Sri Lankan navy had already started its own rescue efforts, it said.

The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies after the attack, according to The Associated Press. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Thursday that the U.S. will "bitterly regret" striking and sinking that ship. 

"The U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran's shores," Araqchi wrote on X. "Frigate Dena, a guest of India's Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning."

US 'WINNING DECISIVELY' AGAINST IRAN, WILL ACHIEVE 'COMPLETE CONTROL' OF AIRSPACE WITHIN DAYS, HEGSETH SAYS

"Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set," he added. 

Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that the Iranian vessel was "effectively neutralized" in a Navy "fast attack" using a single Mark 48 torpedo.

He added that the U.S. Navy achieved "immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea." 

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace, Landon Mion and The Associated Press contributed to this report.