For the first time since its test launches of the “intercontinental rocket ‘Hwasong-15’” on November 29, 2017, North Korea on May 4 carried out launches of weapons—weapons which the South Korea and U.S. governments have refrained from characterizing as “missiles” but which weapons experts widely view as North Korea’s version of the Russian short-range ballistic missile Iskander. Accordingly, the latest launches received high-profile state media coverage the following day.

State media’s coverage of Saturday’s event, however, was lower key compared to the “rocket” test reports that preceded the diplomatic détente in 2018: the party daily