North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's military said, a day after Pyongyang scornfully rejected Seoul's demand for an apology over a landmine explosion that wounded three South Korean soldiers.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch at about 6:30 a.m. from the Wonsan area, a port city on North Korea's east coast. The missile flew more than 700 kilometres before landing in the East Sea, which is also known as the Sea of Japan. The military did not specify the type of missile. Yonhap news agency reported that it may have been a medium-range or intermediate-range missile fired at reduced range, similar to a launch from Wonsan on Aug. 12. Seoul and Washington are analysing the details. Japan's coast guard said the object appeared to have come down, and Tokyo issued an emergency alert. The US Pacific Command said the launch did not pose an immediate threat to US personnel, territory or allies.
South Korea's presidential national security office held an emergency meeting, and the military said it had raised its monitoring for further launches and would share intelligence with the United States and Japan. North Korea has carried out missile tests more than 10 times this year, and recent weeks have also brought a purported hypersonic missile test, live-fire drills and the commissioning of a new warship.
The launch comes amid a dispute over a Sept. 21 blast inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the heavily mined buffer strip, about 4 kilometres wide, that has divided the two Koreas since their 1953 armistice. South Korea and the US-led United Nations Command concluded that North Korean mines laid south of the Military Demarcation Line caused the explosion, which seriously injured two of the three soldiers on a reconnaissance mission. South Korea's defence minister said the mines were probably laid as part of the North's border fortification work, which includes mines and anti-tank barriers. Pyongyang has pursued that work since Kim Jong Un labelled South Korea his country's "principal enemy" in 2024.
Kim Yo Jong, the leader's powerful sister, has denied North Korean responsibility and accused Seoul of fabrication. She called its demands "utterly pathetic" and said the North intends to permanently cut ties. She also mocked President Lee Jae Myung's call for lower tensions as "the climax of the farce that everyone should watch" and dismissed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's offer of talks on clarifying the border line.
Analysts see the launch as a deliberate answer to Seoul's outreach. "Seoul called for easing tensions, but Pyongyang answered by escalating them," said Yang Moo-jin, a former president of the University of North Korean Studies. Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute suggested it may have been an attempt to draw a response from Seoul, or a test of a new missile type.
The episode also unfolds as US President Donald Trump's warm words for Kim Jong Un have raised concerns in Seoul that it could be sidelined in any future nuclear talks. At home, South Korea's opposition People Power Party has accused Lee of being too soft on Pyongyang.