North Korea fires missile barrage days after rejecting South’s border talks

North Korea fired “around a dozen” short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Thursday, Seoul’s defence ministry said, less than a week after South Korea proposed talks over a growing border row.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said its military detected “around a dozen short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Wonsan area of North Korea towards the East Sea”, the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan.

“Our military has stepped up surveillance and vigilance against possible additional launches,” it added in its statement.

The Japan Coast Guard separately said that “an object that appears to be a ballistic missile launched from North Korea seems to have already fallen”, urging ships to be vigilant.

North Korea has tested a slew of weapons recently, including a new precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile, both of which were said to employ AI technology.

Thursday’s flurry of missiles comes against the backdrop of growing tensions over a landmine explosion along the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas that saw three South Korean soldiers wounded.

A joint Seoul-UN investigation earlier this month concluded that North Korea planted the landmines over a year ago. Seoul accused Pyongyang of “a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement” and called for the North to return to dialogue.

Offer rebuffed

Pyongyang has since ridiculed South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s overture, with Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North’s leader, dubbing it “the climax of the farce”.

Last week, South Korea proposed military talks with the North to “mutually confirm the precise location” of their border and discuss restoring communication channels, but Pyongyang has yet to respond.

The DMZ is one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers, and landmine incidents have previously heightened tensions between the two countries. Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war, as the Korean conflict ended in 1953 with a truce rather than a peace treaty.

Last week, North Korea appeared to have parked armoured vehicles with gun barrels pointed south on the border, worrying visitors to a South Korean observatory near the DMZ.

“I’d only seen on TV that North Korea had deployed 122-mm artillery, but seeing the area in person makes me realise just how real the danger is,” Jang Gil-seong, an 83-year-old veteran who ‌fought in the Vietnam war, said on Tuesday outside the Aegibong observatory, which overlooks North Korea’s Kaephung county from about 1.4km ⁠(1 mile) away.

South Korea’s defence ministry said ‌on Thursday the deployment ⁠of older ‌weapon systems appeared ⁠to ⁠be ‌a performative move, ‌adding ‌that ‌Pyongyang could ⁠have multiple motives ⁠for the action.

The ratcheting tensions come as US President Donald Trump’s recent overtures to North Korea have raised concerns that Seoul – an ally of Washington – could be sidelined in potential nuclear talks involving Pyongyang.

In his most recent comments, Trump seemingly downplayed the possibility of a summit while insisting his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was “very good”.

In October, North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles a day after Trump suggested the two might meet this year.