North Korea fires missiles days after Seoul's hypersonic test
One missile flew more than 900 km (559 miles) and Japan says the second may have been a hypersonic weapon. Seoul calls it a show of force.
North Korea fired several ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, the name Koreans use for the Sea of Japan, on Monday, Oct. 12. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff detected them around 9:20 a.m. local time and said one flew more than 900 km (559 miles). The military did not give the number of missiles or their category, according to Al Jazeera.
Japan gave more detail. Deputy Defense Minister Takashi Koyari said at least two missiles left 17 minutes apart and landed beyond his country's exclusive economic zone. The first traveled about 220 km (137 miles) and the second more than 910 km (565 miles). The second followed an "irregular" path that could match a hypersonic weapon, Koyari said.
In Seoul, Joint Chiefs spokesman Jang Do-young said the launch "appears to be a show of force." The presidential national security office called an emergency meeting and said the launches violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to The Korea Times.
The launches come four days after South Korea's first test of a hypersonic weapon, overseen on Thursday, Oct. 8 by President Lee Jae Myung. It is Pyongyang's sixteenth round of ballistic launches this year, according to The Korea Herald, and follows a North Korean test of an intermediate-range hypersonic missile on Oct. 3.
Tension was already high. Earlier, three South Korean soldiers were wounded by mines that exploded in the demilitarized zone. Seoul and the U.N. Command investigated together and attributed the mines to the North, which denies it. Lee pledged in 2025 to reopen dialogue, but Kim Jong Un refuses to negotiate while Washington keeps what he calls a "hostile" policy.
So far there is no North Korean account in the sources consulted, and Seoul's analysis of the type of missiles remains preliminary.
