North Korea Fires Multiple Missiles    10/12 06:25

   

   SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea on Monday fired multiple ballistic 
missiles toward its eastern waters, South Korea's military said, adding to a 
recent streak of weapons demonstrations that has heightened tensions during a 
prolonged freeze in diplomacy.

   Jang Do-young, spokesperson of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 
missiles of various types were fired from an area around the North Korean 
capital of Pyongyang, where the country's main airport has been a major launch 
site in recent years.

   Jang said one of the missiles flew more than 900 kilometers (559 miles) 
before falling into the sea but didn't comment on the flight details of the 
other weapons. The joint chiefs didn't specify how many missiles it detected.

   Japan's Deputy Defense Minister Takashi Koyari said Japan detected at least 
two missiles launched 17 minutes apart and that the weapons landed in waters 
outside of its exclusive economic zone. Koyari said the first missile flew 
about 220 kilometers (137 miles) and the second more than 910 kilometers (565 
miles), following an "irregular" flight path, a term Japanese officials have 
previously used to describe hypersonic weapons. There were no reports of damage 
to aircraft or vessels, he said.

   While maintaining a hard line toward Seoul, North Korea has been ramping up 
weapons testing as it seeks to expand its arsenal of nuclear-capable systems, 
including an Oct. 3 test of what the North described as a hypersonic 
intermediate-range missile designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea 
and Japan.

   North Korea has also conducted other missile tests and live-fire drills and 
commissioned a new warship as leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his 
nuclear weapons program while rejecting U.S. and South Korean offers to resume 
long-stalled diplomacy.

   The latest launch came days after South Korea on Friday flight-tested its 
own domestically developed hypersonic weapon, designed to fly at least five 
times the speed of sound and evade missile defense systems, which President Lee 
Jae Myung described as critical in strengthening the South's conventional 
defense capabilities. Without directly addressing the growing threat from North 
Korea, Lee's office said the hypersonic weapon, once fully developed, would 
enhance South Korea's ability to strike key targets by surprise in the "Korean 
Peninsula theater of operations."

   Jang, the South Korean military official, said the latest North Korean 
launches likely were intended to advance the country's missile technologies 
while also serving as a possible response to South Korea's hypersonic test.

   The South's presidential national security office called for North Korea to 
"immediately cease" its repeated ballistic launches, which violate U.N. 
Security Council resolutions against the North and "do not help manage the 
current situation on the Korean Peninsula." Koyari said Japan lodged a protest 
to North Korea through their embassies in Beijing.

   Tensions were further worsened after three South Korean soldiers were 
injured in land mine explosions last month near the heavily armed inter-Korean 
border. The South's military and the U.S.-led United Nations Command concluded 
the blasts were caused by devices planted by North Korea, which has denied 
responsibility and ridiculed the South's demands for an apology.

   Kim in recent years has halted all diplomacy and cooperation with South 
Korea and described the neighbor as a permanent enemy during a prolonged 
stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations with Washington. He has so far 
rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump's calls to revive their diplomacy, which 
broke down in 2019, with his government demanding that Washington abandon its 
"hostile" policy toward Pyongyang and drop demands for North Korea's 
denuclearization as a precondition for talks.