North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles towards the sea off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, in what Seoul described as an apparent show of force following its own recent hypersonic missile test. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch at about 9:20 a.m. local time from the Pyongyang area, and that at least one missile flew more than 900 kilometres. It did not say how many missiles were fired, and said it had stepped up surveillance against possible additional launches.
Japan's coastguard and defence ministry also reported the launch of what they believed to be ballistic missiles, which appeared to have already fallen. South Korea's presidential office said Pyongyang's repeated launches violate United Nations Security Council resolutions and urged an immediate halt. JCS spokesperson Jang Do-young said an initial analysis suggested the launch was a protest against South Korea's test of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) and a display of what the North calls achievements under its five-year defence plan. He declined to say whether the missiles were hypersonic or intermediate-range, citing the need for further analysis.
The launch comes amid a run of weapons demonstrations on both sides of the Korean Peninsula. On Thursday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung oversaw the country's first test of an HGV, a rare public showcase of such a test by a South Korean leader. Hypersonic weapons travel at least five times the speed of sound and are designed to manoeuvre on unpredictable, low-altitude paths, making them hard to intercept. On October 3, North Korea tested what it called a hypersonic intermediate-range missile meant to evade defences in South Korea and Japan. Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said that missile could change its flight path at low altitude and incorporated artificial intelligence.
Tensions have also risen since a September 21 landmine blast wounded three South Korean soldiers in the South-controlled part of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the heavily fortified strip dividing the two countries. A joint investigation by South Korea and the UN Command concluded that North Korean forces planted the mines about a year earlier. Pyongyang denies responsibility and accuses Seoul of fabricating the findings. Kim Yo Jong has called Seoul's demand for an apology "despicable" and rejected a planned transfer of medical equipment from the South.
The backdrop is a long-stalled diplomatic process. Lee pledged to reopen dialogue with the North when he took office in 2025, and Seoul had reportedly been making preliminary efforts to help facilitate talks between Pyongyang and Washington. But Kim Jong Un continues to showcase his nuclear programme and has rejected US and South Korean overtures. Talks between Kim and US President Donald Trump ended abruptly in 2019, and Pyongyang demands that Washington abandon its "hostile" policy and drop denuclearisation as a condition for negotiations. The two Koreas remain technically at war, as the 1950–53 conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.