North Korea fires ballistic missile after rejecting Seoul's apology demand

South Korean national security council convenes emergency meeting after launch

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Saturday, South Korea and Japan said, a day after Pyongyang rejected Seoul’s accusation that its mines had wounded South Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone.

The missile was launched from the Wonsan area at about 6:30 a.m. local time and flew more than 700 kilometers (434 miles) toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, the South Korean military said. Seoul and Washington were analyzing the test for further details, it added.

Japan’s coast guard, citing the country’s defense ministry, said the object may have been a ballistic missile and appeared to have come down, warning ships to take precautions.

South Korea’s military said it had heightened its monitoring for additional missile tests and would share intelligence with the United States and Japan. The South Korean presidential office’s national security council convened an emergency meeting on Saturday to assess the situation.

The Friday statement from Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of ruler Kim Jong-un, rejected Seoul’s demand for an apology over what the South said were North Korean mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the demilitarized zone — the heavily guarded buffer between the two Koreas. South Korea said this week that North Korean mines caused a blast that injured three South Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission inside the 4-kilometer-wide buffer zone that stretches across the Korean peninsula.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung had urged Pyongyang on Thursday to return to dialogue, despite his military demanding an apology a day earlier. Kim Yo-jong responded by calling Seoul “really despicable” and ridiculing Lee’s latest overture, calling it “the climax of the farce that everyone should watch.”

Kim Yo-jong also warned that Pyongyang was “ready for anything” Seoul might do over the mine blast. The remarks were followed the next morning by North Korea’s ballistic missile launch.

Cheong Seong-chang, vice-president at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, a research center on North Korean affairs, said the missile test might be an attempt by Pyongyang to draw a response from South Korea to the sister’s statement. North Korea might also have tested a new type of missile, he added.

North Korea has launched missile tests on more than 10 occasions so far this year. Some came after North Korea protested joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.

North Korea has ramped up hostility against the South in recent years, disavowing unification as a national goal and calling South Korea its “primary foe.”