North Korea test-fires ballistic missile

SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, extending a recent run of weapons tests during heightened tensions between the rivals over border land mine blasts that injured three South Korean soldiers.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile launched from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area flew more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) and that South Korean and U.S. militaries were analyzing the specifics. Japan's Defense Ministry said the missile landed outside the country’s exclusive economic zone.The South’s joint chiefs said the military stepped up surveillance and vigilance for possible further launches from the North and was closely sharing information with the United States and Japan.Seoul’s presidential national security office called for North Korea to immediately halt its repeated ballistic launches, calling them a violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions and a “serious act that does nothing to help manage the current situation.”The U.S. Pacific Command said the launch “does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies.”The launch came a day after the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ridiculed South Korean demands for the North to apologize over the Sept. 21 land mine blasts, which occurred about 10 meters (11 yards) south of the countries’ military demarcation line.South Korea said a joint inspection of the site with the U.S.-led United Nations Command found that the blasts were caused by mines planted by North Korea. The command later determined that the North violated the armistice agreement that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.South Korea has also called on the North to halt its recent border fortification efforts, including the installation of mines and anti-tank barriers, which have accelerated after Kim Jong Un in 2024 abandoned his government’s long-standing goal of reconciliation with the South and declared Seoul a permanent adversary.Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s sister and possibly the second-most powerful figure in Pyongyang, dismissed Seoul’s demands over the mine blasts as “utterly pathetic” on Friday, saying the North intends to cut ties with the South forever. In a previous statement, she denied North Korean responsibility for the blasts and threatened to retaliate if South Korea fires on North Korean troops fortifying the border.Saturday’s launch was the latest in a series of North Korean military displays in recent weeks, including missile tests, live-fire exercises and the commissioning of a new warship, as Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his growing nuclear program despite U.S. calls to revive diplomacy. Wonsan was also the site where the North on Sept. 20 tested what state media described as a hypersonic missile system, part of a broad range of weapons North Korea has developed in recent years that are designed to overwhelm missile defenses in the South. Kim has largely abandoned diplomacy with Washington and Seoul since his nuclear negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019, and he has made Moscow the new focus of his foreign policy, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.Following years of intensified testing, Kim now has an extensive arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles, including long-range weapons potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland and shorter-range systems that threaten South Korea and Japan.Trump in August scaled back a major military exercise with South Korea in an apparent effort to restart diplomacy with Kim, who has condemned such drills as rehearsals for invasion.North Korea has so far rebuffed Trump’s outreach. It says Washington must first abandon its “hostile policy” — a term Pyongyang has traditionally used to describe U.S.-led sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises — and drop denuclearization as a precondition for talks.