North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile toward waters off its east coast on Saturday (Oct 3), according to South Korean and Japanese authorities — the latest in a series of launches this year, coming just a day after Pyongyang rejected Seoul’s claim that its mines injured soldiers.

South Korea’s military said the missile was fired from the Wonsan region at approximately 6.30am local time (5.30am Singapore time) and traveled over 700 kilometres. Seoul and Washington are analyzing the test for further details, the military added in a statement.

Japan’s coast guard, citing the defence ministry in an emailed statement, said the projectile may have been a ballistic missile and appeared to have landed, urging vessels to exercise caution.

South Korea’s military said it has stepped up surveillance for additional missile tests and will exchange intelligence with the US and Japan. The South Korean presidential office’s national security council held an emergency meeting on Saturday to evaluate the situation following the launch, according to a statement from the office.

North Korea has conducted missile tests more than 10 times this year, with Pyongyang sometimes describing them as trials of new weapons systems. Several tests have followed North Korean protests against joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington.

Saturday’s launch came after Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement on Friday rejecting Seoul’s demand for an apology over what South Korea says were North Korean mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarised Zone, the heavily fortified border area between the two Koreas.

Earlier this week, South Korea said North Korean mines caused an explosion that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission inside the 4-km-wide border zone spanning the Korean Peninsula.

Cheong Seong-chang, vice president at the Sejong Institute, a Seoul-based research centre on North Korean affairs, suggested the missile test may be an attempt by Pyongyang to provoke a response from South Korea to Kim Yo Jong’s statement. North Korea may also have been testing a new missile type, he added.

In recent years, North Korea has sharply escalated its hostility toward the South, abandoning unification as a national objective and labeling South Korea its “primary foe.”

Source: Reuters/bg