North Korea said on Saturday it test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that it claimed has manoeuvrable flight capabilities designed to evade missile defences in South Korea and Japan. The latest test comes amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas over border land mine blasts.
SEOUL— North Korea said on Saturday it test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that it claimed has manoeuvrable flight capabilities designed to evade missile defences in South Korea and Japan. The latest test comes amid heightened tensions between the two Koreas over border land mine blasts.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said her brother supervised the test of the missile, which she described as strategic, implying it was designed to deliver nuclear weapons. She also said it could change its flight trajectory at low altitudes and was equipped with unspecified artificial intelligence capabilities that she claimed would make it highly difficult to intercept.
Japan's military said the missile landed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone.
The South Korean military, which often accuses North Korea of exaggerating its military capabilities, did not immediately comment on Kim's claims.
The North claims new missile capabilities
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said early Saturday it detected the North Korean missile being launched from the eastern coastal Wonsan area and flying more than 700 kilometres (435 miles). Japan's Defence Ministry later said it detected the missile flying about 680 kilometres (422 miles).
Kim argued in her statement that the differing flight details between the neighbouring US allies proved they couldn't properly track the missile in flight.
“Whenever we applied the wavelike trajectory mode to missiles, the enemy failed to track the targets from their first skip points,” she said. “There is no way to avoid this attack.”
The launch came a day after she ridiculed South Korean demands for the North to apologise over the Sept. 21 land mine blasts, which occurred about 10 meters (11 yards) south of the countries' military demarcation line, injuring three South Korean soldiers.
South Korea said a joint inspection of the site with the US-led United Nations Command found 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.
The South 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, 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 statement on Sept. 30, she denied North Korean responsibility for the blasts and threatened to retaliate if South Korea fires on North Korean troops fortifying the border.
North Korea has upped its weapons tests
Saturday's launch at Wonsan 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 US 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 defences in South Korea and Japan. The various hypersonic systems tested by the North have included solid-fuel intermediate-range missiles that were first unveiled in 2024.
The South's joint chiefs said Saturday 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 UN Security Council sanctions and a “serious act that does nothing to help manage the current situation.”
The US Pacific Command said the launch “does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel or territory, or to our allies.”
Kim Jong Un has largely abandoned diplomacy with Washington and Seoul since his nuclear negotiations with US 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 US 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 US-led sanctions and joint US-South Korean military exercises -- and drop denuclearisation as a precondition for talks.