North Korea fires about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea amid a dispute with Seoul over a border landmine blast

North Korea fired about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea (Sea of Japan) on Thursday 29 October, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The missiles were launched from the Wonsan area on the North’s east coast at about 03:30 GMT and flew about 250 km, the JCS said, adding that further analysis was under way with the United States, Yonhap reported.

A South Korean military official said the launch was believed to involve North Korea’s KN-25 600-millimetre multiple rocket launcher, Yonhap reported. Japan’s defence ministry said a possible ballistic missile fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Kyodo News reported.

South Korea’s Office of National Security held an emergency meeting and said the launch violated UN Security Council resolutions, urging Pyongyang to “immediately halt such actions”. The JCS said it was sharing information with the United States and Japan and maintained “the capability and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation”. North Korea had not commented on the launch in the reports cited.

The launch came about a week after Seoul proposed military talks on border demarcation. Tensions have risen since a landmine blast in the Demilitarised Zone on 21 September injured three South Korean soldiers. A joint South Korea-UN investigation concluded that North Korea had planted the mines, Al Jazeera reported. Pyongyang rejected the finding: its UN ambassador Kim Song wrote to the Security Council accusing Seoul of “groundlessly shifting the blame”, and Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, called Seoul’s demands for an apology “despicable”.

Background

North Korea last test-fired what it called tactical ballistic missiles on 12 October. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. See also: Kim Yo Jong on border fortification.