North Korea fires ballistic missiles days after Seoul's first hypersonic test

North Korea fired several ballistic missiles towards the sea off its east coast on Monday morning, its second launch in nine days and its first since South Korea showed off a hypersonic weapon of its own last week.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the missiles were launched from the Pyongyang area at about 9:20 am local time and that one of them flew more than 900 km. JCS spokesperson Jang Do-young said missiles of “various types” were fired, and that the launch was probably meant to advance the North’s missile technology and possibly to respond to the South’s test.

Japan’s defence ministry said it detected at least two missiles, fired 17 minutes apart. The first flew about 220 km at a peak altitude of about 20 km. The second travelled more than 910 km, peaking at about 70 km. Both fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and Japan reported no damage.

A possible hypersonic weapon

Tokyo said it was “analyzing the details, including the possibility of an irregular trajectory” for the second missile. An irregular, manoeuvring flight path is a feature of hypersonic weapons, which are designed to dodge missile defences.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ordered ministries to gather information and to make sure aircraft and ships in the area were safe. Japan lodged a protest with North Korea through its embassy in Beijing.

In Seoul, the presidential National Security Office called an emergency meeting with defence officials. “After North Korea fired several ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea, we convened an emergency security review meeting,” said senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung. The office urged the North to stop the launches at once, calling them a violation of UN Security Council resolutions. South Korea, the United States and Japan said they were sharing information closely.

Rival tests

The launch follows a busy fortnight. On 3 October North Korea fired a missile from the Wonsan area that flew more than 700 km. Its state media described it as a hypersonic intermediate-range missile and said leader Kim Jong Un attended the test.

On Thursday South Korea announced its first test launch of a domestically developed hypersonic glide vehicle, fired from an offshore barge at the Agency for Defense Development’s Anheung test site. President Lee Jae Myung watched the test. His office said the weapon would help the South strike key targets by surprise once it is fully developed.

Seoul presented the test partly as an answer to a landmine blast in the Demilitarised Zone that wounded three South Korean soldiers. South Korean investigators and the US-led UN Command concluded that North Korean troops had planted the mines. Pyongyang denies this and has mocked Seoul’s demands for an apology.

Monday’s launch was the North’s first from the Pyongyang area since 20 August, when it fired about 10 short-range missiles, and its 16th ballistic missile launch this year.

Diplomacy on hold

Lee has pledged to reopen dialogue with the North, and before the landmine blast his government said it was working to help bring Pyongyang and Washington to the table. US President Donald Trump has called for reviving talks with Kim, which broke down in 2019.

Kim has turned those offers down. His government says Washington must first drop what it calls its “hostile” policy and stop insisting on denuclearisation as a condition for talks. Meanwhile, the North keeps expanding its nuclear and missile programmes.