SEOUL: North Korea on Monday fired multiple ballistic missiles off its east coast, Seoul’s military said, after weeks of mounting friction over a land mine explosion along their heavily fortified border.
Since the blast that injured three South Korean soldiers in the Seoul-controlled area of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), both countries have tested upgraded missile technology.
“Our military detected around 09:20 (0020 GMT) several ballistic missiles launched from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Monday, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.
“Our military has stepped up surveillance and vigilance against possible additional launches,” it added in its statement.
Japan’s defense ministry separately confirmed the launch of at least one suspected ballistic missile.
US Pacific Command said North Korea launched two ballistic missiles but they did not pose an immediate threat “to US personnel or territory, or to our allies.”
Some of the North Korean missiles detected flew more than 900 kilometers (560 miles), the JCS said, while Seoul and longtime ally the United States were now conducting an analysis of their exact specifications.
South Korea’s National Security Office convened an emergency security meeting following the launch to review the country’s military readiness.
A joint Seoul-UN investigation last week concluded that North Korea had planted the land mines that exploded in the DMZ over a year ago, something Pyongyang has angrily denied.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has blasted South Korean demands for an apology as “despicable” while separately rejecting an offer of medical equipment from Seoul.
- Duelling tests -
On October 3, Pyongyang test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that Kim Yo Jong said employed unspecified artificial intelligence technology and was “capable of changing its flight orbit at a low altitude.”
Seoul said days later that it had successfully tested a domestically produced hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), a weapon carried into the upper atmosphere by rocket boosters or ballistic missiles before gliding toward its targets.
The presidential Blue House said the HGV offered “a new deterrence capability capable of striking key targets within the Korean Peninsula’s operational environment.”
On Thursday, Kim Yo Jong said Seoul must offer “utmost respect” if it hoped to mend ties with the North.
“If they (South Korea) truly wish to restore relations between the DPRK and South Korea, they should be mindful of the other side’s feelings in every word and deed, and first demonstrate the utmost respect, consideration and sincerity,” she said Thursday, using her country’s official acronym.
The ratcheting tensions come as US President Donald Trump’s recent overtures to Pyongyang have raised concerns that Seoul — an ally of Washington — could be sidelined in potential nuclear talks involving the North.
In October, North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles a day after Trump suggested he might meet with Kim Jong Un this year.
Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war as the Korean conflict ended in 1953 with a truce rather than a peace treaty.
The DMZ is one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers, and land mine incidents have previously heightened tensions between the two countries.