North Korea fires ballistic missile towards East Sea amid border tensions

North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the East Sea on Saturday, South Korea’s military said. The launch came amid heightened tensions over a landmine blast in the DMZ that injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously.

Seoul: North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the East Sea on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, as tensions heightened over a recent mine blast along the inter-Korean border that injured three South Korean soldiers.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch at about 6.30 a.m. from the Wonsan area, without elaborating on the type of missile launched.

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The missile flew over 700 kilometres before landing at sea, the JCS said, adding that it was analysing the exact specifications of the launch with the US side.

South Korean and US intelligence authorities had tracked the launch from its early stage and shared relevant information, the JCS said in a notice.

“Our military is closely monitoring various movements by the North under a robust South Korea-US combined defence posture and maintaining the capability and readiness to respond decisively to any provocations,” it added.

While the military did not specify the type of missile, it was reportedly analysing its specifications while leaving open the possibility that it may have been a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) or an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

“There is a possibility that the North fired an IRBM with a reduced range,” a government source said, adding that the missile appeared to be similar to the one launched on August 12.

North Korea fired a ballistic missile from the Wonsan area towards the East Sea on August 12 in an apparent protest against the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise between the South and the US, reports Yonhap news agency.

The military did not disclose the specifications of the missile at the time, but there was speculation that North Korea may have conducted a reduced-range test launch of an MRBM, with a range of 1,000 to 3,000 kilometres, or an IRBM, with a range of 3,000 to 5,500 kilometres.

The latest launch came amid heightened inter-Korean tensions following the September 21 blast of North Korean land mines inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. The incident left three South Korean soldiers injured, two of them seriously.

The South Korean military has blamed North Korea for the mine blast, calling it a “blatant violation” of the armistice agreement. Seoul has also demanded an apology from Pyongyang and urged it to halt border fortification work.

North Korea denied its involvement in a statement issued on Wednesday by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of its leader Kim Jong-un, accusing Seoul of fabricating the findings and warning of “merciless” retaliation if the South takes any corresponding actions.

In a separate statement on Friday, Kim again repeated the denial of the North’s responsibility, while deriding President Lee Jae Myung’s pledge to reduce military tensions between the two Koreas as “the climax of the farce that everyone should watch.”

She also dismissed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young’s proposal for dialogue to discuss the issue of clarifying the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) as a “delusional, one-sided rant not worth responding to.” Chung cited the fading visibility of the border line as a primary factor behind the DMZ blast.

Saturday’s launch came just 13 days after the North fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area towards the East Sea within hours of each other on September 20.