North Korea tests evasive missile as border mine tensions rise
North Korea said on Saturday it had test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile that it claimed has manoeuvrable flight capabilities to evade missile defences in South Korea and Japan. The launch came at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula following recent land mine blasts near the border that injured South Korean soldiers.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Kim supervised the test of what she described as a "strategic" missile, suggesting it was designed to deliver nuclear weapons. She said the missile could change its flight path at low altitudes and had unspecified artificial intelligence capabilities that she claimed would make it very difficult to intercept. Japan's military said the missile landed in waters outside its exclusive economic zone, while South Korea's military did not immediately comment on Kim's claims.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch from the eastern coastal Wonsan area early on Saturday and said the missile flew more than 700 kilometres. Japan's Defence Ministry later said it detected the missile flying about 680 kilometres. Kim said the differing assessments by the two US allies showed they could not 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 Kim Yo Jong mocked South Korean demands for an apology over the September 21 land mine blasts, which took place about 10 metres south of the military demarcation line and injured three South Korean soldiers. South Korea said a joint inspection with the US-led United Nations Command found that the blasts were caused by mines planted by North Korea. The command later said North Korea had violated the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
Seoul has also urged the North to stop its recent border fortification work, including the installation of mines and anti-tank barriers. Those efforts have accelerated after Kim Jong Un in 2024 dropped his government's long-standing goal of reconciliation with the South and declared Seoul a permanent adversary. Kim Yo Jong, widely seen as one of the most powerful figures in Pyongyang, had on Friday called Seoul's demands over the mine blasts "utterly pathetic" and said the North intended to cut ties with the South forever. In a statement on September 30, she denied North Korean responsibility for the blasts and warned of retaliation if South Korea fired on North Korean troops working on the border.
Saturday's launch was the latest in a series of North Korean military displays in recent weeks, including missile tests, live-fire drills and the commissioning of a new warship, as Kim Jong Un continues to showcase his expanding nuclear programme despite US calls to revive diplomacy. Wonsan was also the site of a September 20 test of what North Korean state media described as a hypersonic missile system. That was part of a broader range of weapons North Korea has developed in recent years to overwhelm missile defences in South Korea and Japan, including solid-fuel intermediate-range missiles first unveiled in 2024.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military had increased surveillance and vigilance for possible further launches and was closely sharing information with the United States and Japan. Seoul's presidential national security office called on North Korea to immediately stop its repeated ballistic launches, saying they violated UN Security Council sanctions and were 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 talks with US President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019, and has shifted his foreign policy focus to Moscow, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine. After years of intensified testing, North Korea now has a broad arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles, including long-range weapons that could potentially reach the US mainland and shorter-range systems aimed at South Korea and Japan. Trump in August scaled back a major military exercise with South Korea in an apparent effort to restart diplomacy, but North Korea has so far rejected his outreach, saying Washington must first end its "hostile policy" and drop denuclearisation as a precondition for talks.
In sum, North Korea's latest missile launch added to tensions already sharpened by the border mine blasts, with Pyongyang highlighting what it said were new missile capabilities and South Korea, Japan and the United States responding with monitoring, criticism and calls for restraint.
