North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the sea on Saturday, South Korea and Japan said, a day after it rejected Seoul’s accusation of its mines wounding soldiers.
The missile was launched from the Wonsan area at about ۶.۳۰am towards the East Sea – also known as the Sea of Japan – and flew more than ۷۰۰km (۴۳۴ miles), the South Korean military said. Seoul and Washington were analysing the test for details, it added.
Japan’s coast guard, citing the defence ministry, said the object may have been a ballistic missile and appeared to have come down, warning ships to take precautions.
South Korea’s military said it heightened its monitoring of any further missile tests and would share intelligence with the US and Japan. The South Korean presidential office’s national security council convened an emergency meeting on Saturday to assess the situation.
Pyongyang’s Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of ruler Kim Jong-un, issued a statement on Friday that dismissed Seoul’s demand for an apology for what it said were North Korean mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the demilitarised zone – the heavily guarded buffer between the two Koreas.
South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, had urged Pyongyang on Thursday to return to dialogue, despite his military demanding an apology a day earlier. Kim Yo-jong responded by calling Seoul “really despicable” and ridiculing Lee’s latest overture, calling it “the climax of the farce that everyone should watch”.
Kim also warned that Pyongyang was “ready for anything” Seoul might do over the mine blast – remarks followed the next morning by North Korea’s ballistic missile launch.
South Korea said this week that North Korean mines caused the blast that injured three South Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission inside the ۴km-wide buffer zone that stretches across the Korean peninsula.
The missile test might be an attempt by Pyongyang to draw a response from South Korea to the sister’s statement, said Cheong Seong-chang, vice-president at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, a research centre on North Korean affairs. North Korea might also have tested a new type of missile, he added.
North Korea has launched missile tests on more than ۱۰ occasions so far this year. Some came after North Korea protested against joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.
North Korea has ramped up hostility against the South in recent years, disavowing unification as a national goal and calling South Korea its “primary foe”.
With Agence France-Presse
