North Korea launches ballistic missile as tensions with South Korea rise

North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward the East Sea, South Korea’s military said Saturday, shortly after Seoul demanded an apology over a mine blast in the Demilitarized Zone that injured three of its soldiers.

The missile launch followed a fresh rejection from Pyongyang of accusations that it was responsible for the explosion, as well as criticism of South Korea’s attempts to restore dialogue between the two countries.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was detected early Saturday after being launched from the Wonsan area of North Korea.

“Our military detected a ballistic missile launched from the Wonsan area of North Korea toward the East Sea,” the Joint Chiefs said.

According to the military, the missile travelled more than 700 kilometres (435 miles).

“South Korea, the US, and Japan are maintaining a robust defense posture through close information sharing regarding North Korean ballistic missiles,” it said.

The launch came amid growing tensions over the DMZ, the heavily mined buffer zone established between the two Koreas following their 1953 armistice.

South Korea and the US-led United Nations Command concluded that a blast in the zone last month was caused by North Korean mines laid on the South Korean side of the border. Three South Korean soldiers were wounded in the explosion.

South Korean Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul said the mines were believed to have been planted as part of North Korea’s border fortification efforts.

Pyongyang has increasingly strengthened the frontier by laying mines and constructing anti-tank barriers. The measures followed Kim Jong Un’s decision in 2024 to designate South Korea as North Korea’s “principal enemy.”

Despite a demand from South Korea’s military for an apology, President Lee Jae Myung called on Pyongyang Thursday to resume dialogue.

But Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and a senior North Korean official, rejected the overture, calling Seoul “really despicable” and again denying that North Korea was behind the explosions.

She described Lee’s call for dialogue as “the climax of the farce that everyone should watch” and said the South Korean military’s demand for an apology was “quite ridiculous.”

Kim further warned that North Korea was “ready for anything” Seoul might do in response to the mine blast.

The following morning, North Korea launched the ballistic missile.

Pyongyang signals confrontation

Analysts said the launch could be interpreted as a deliberate show of force and a rejection of Seoul’s attempts to reduce tensions through diplomacy.

“Seoul called for easing tensions, but Pyongyang answered by escalating them,” Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

“The message is that the North is pursuing… confrontation in response to goodwill,” he said.

South Korea’s defence minister had warned Tuesday that the military had “a range of necessary measures at our disposal, and we will implement them in stages” over the DMZ incident.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also proposed talks with North Korea on Friday to discuss border-related issues.

Kim Yo Jong dismissed the proposal as a “wild dream and unilateral jargon.”

The latest confrontation comes as US President Donald Trump’s recent overtures toward Pyongyang have raised concerns in Seoul that South Korea could be left on the sidelines if Washington and North Korea resume nuclear negotiations.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s opposition People Power Party accused President Lee of failing to properly criticise North Korea despite the injury of South Korean troops.

The party said Lee was taking a harder stance toward Ukraine after Kyiv publicly disclosed the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war, which Seoul had believed should remain confidential.

“South Korean soldiers have been injured, and far from receiving an apology, we have been mocked by North Korea,” the opposition party said.

“We fail to see how selectively turning a blind eye to North Korea serves South Korea’s dignity or the safety of its people.”

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