The military and government are expected to revive the term "provocation" when announcing ballistic missile launches by North Korea.

According to multiple military sources on Thursday, the defense ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) have been internally reviewing terminology and have reportedly opted for the reversion at the behest of new defense minister Lee Jong-sup, who took office on Wednesday.

Until now, the JCS has alerted journalists within minutes of detecting a ballistic missile launch with a text message stating, "North Korea fires unidentified projectile." It then followed up with further details of the launch.

Going forward, however, the ministry intends to eliminate ambiguity, referring to ballistic missiles as such in the text messages instead of calling them “projectiles.”

In formal statements, the military plans to use the expression "serious provocation" instead of "serious threat."

The government is also expected to modify the language in its statements in line with the revised military terms.

President Yoon Suk Yeol has reiterated the maintenance of a firm stance against Pyongyang's tension-escalating actions, while the preceding Moon Jae-in administration refrained from describing missile launches as "provocations."