North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles into its eastern waters on Monday, South Korea’s military said, adding to a recent spate of weapons displays that has raised tensions during a prolonged diplomacy freeze. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from an area around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, where the country has used its airport as a major launch site in recent years. The Joint Chiefs of Staff did not immediately specify how many missiles they detected or how far they flew. Japan’s Defense Ministry said it detected at least two missiles and assessed that the weapons landed in waters outside the country’s exclusive economic zone. The launch came days after South Korea on Friday flight-tested its first locally developed hypersonic weapon, designed to fly at least five times the speed of sound and evade missile defense systems, in what President Lee Jae Myung described as an important step in strengthening the South’s conventional defense capabilities. While maintaining a hard line toward Seoul, North Korea has been stepping up weapons tests as it moves forward. seeks to expand its arsenal of nuclear-capable systems, including an Oct. 3 test of what North Korea described as an intermediate-range hypersonic missile designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea and Japan. North Korea has also conducted other missile tests and live-fire exercises and commissioned a new warship as leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his nuclear weapons program while rejecting offers from the United States and South Korea to resume long-stalled diplomacy. Tensions worsened further after three South Korean soldiers were injured in landmine explosions last month near the heavily armed inter-Korean border. The South’s military and the U.S.-led United Nations Command concluded that the explosions were caused by devices planted by North Korea, which denied responsibility and ridiculed the South’s demands for an apology. In recent years, Kim has halted all diplomacy and cooperation with South Korea and described the neighbor as a permanent enemy during a prolonged stalemate in broader nuclear negotiations with Washington. He has so far rejected President Trump’s calls to revive his diplomacy, which failed in 2019, when his administration demanded that Washington abandon its “hostile” policy toward Pyongyang and drop demands for North Korea’s denuclearization as a precondition for talks. The tensions have been a setback for Lee, who favors engagement with North Korea and has moderated his rhetoric toward the North even as public anger over the mine explosions grows. Lee has also called for strengthening South Korea’s conventional defense capabilities while reducing its dependence on the United States. Washington unilaterally decided to scale back a major military exercise with South Korea in August, with Trump citing his “very good relationship” with Kim. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
