North Korea fires missile as DMZ blast tensions escalate

North Korea fired at least one ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Saturday, South Korea's military said, after Pyongyang has denied responsibility for last week's mine blast along the inter-Korean border.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch at about 6:30 a.m. from the Wonsan area, without elaborating.

"The South Korean military has stepped up surveillance for potential additional launches and is maintaining an all-out readiness posture while sharing relevant information with the United States and Japan," the JCS said in a notice.

The latest launch came amid heightened inter-Korean tensions following the Sept. 21 blast of North Korean land mines inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. The incident left three South Korean soldiers injured, two of them seriously.

The South Korean military has blamed North Korea for the mine blast, calling it a "blatant violation" of the Armistice Agreement. Seoul has also demanded an apology from Pyongyang and urged it to halt border fortification work.

North Korea denied its involvement in a statement issued Wednesday by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of its leader Kim Jong-un, accusing Seoul of fabricating the findings and warning of "merciless" retaliation if the South takes any corresponding actions.

In a separate statement Friday, Kim again repeated the denial of the North's responsibility, while deriding President Lee Jae Myung's pledge to reduce military tensions between the two Koreas as "the climax of the farce that everyone should watch."

She also dismissed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's proposal for dialogue to clarify the military demarcation line (MDL), as a "delusional, one-sided rant not worth responding to." Chung cited the fading visibility of the border line as a primary factor behind the DMZ blast.

The latest launch came just 13 days after the North fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea within hours of each other on Sept. 20.

Yonhap