North Korea test-fires missile as tensions grow over border mine blasts

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South Korea has also called on the North to halt its recent border fortification efforts, including the installation of mines and anti-tank barriers, which have accelerated after Kim Jong Un in 2024 abandoned his government’s long-standing goal of reconciliation with the South and declared Seoul a permanent adversary.

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Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s sister and possibly the second-most powerful figure in Pyongyang, dismissed Seoul’s demands over the mine blasts as “utterly pathetic” on Friday, saying the North intends to cut ties with the South forever. In a previous statement, she denied North Korean responsibility for the blasts and threatened to retaliate if South Korea fires on North Korean troops fortifying the border.

Saturday’s launch was the latest in a series of North Korean military displays in recent weeks, including missile tests, live-fire exercises and the commissioning of a new warship, as Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his growing nuclear program despite U.S. calls to revive diplomacy. Wonsan was also the site where the North on Sept. 20 tested what state media described as a hypersonic missile system, part of a broad range of weapons North Korea has developed in recent years that are designed to overwhelm missile defenses in the South. Kim has largely abandoned diplomacy with Washington and Seoul since his nuclear negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019, and he has made Moscow the new focus of his foreign policy, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of weapons to support President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Following years of intensified testing, Kim now has an extensive arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles, including long-range weapons potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland and shorter-range systems that threaten South Korea and Japan.

Trump in August scaled back a major military exercise with South Korea in an apparent effort to restart diplomacy with Kim, who has condemned such drills as rehearsals for invasion.

North Korea has so far rebuffed Trump’s outreach. It says Washington must first abandon its “hostile policy” — a term Pyongyang has traditionally used to describe U.S.-led sanctions and joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises — and drop denuclearization as a precondition for talks.

Kim Tong-hyung, The Associated Press