Seoul:

North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea on Wednesday, the South Korean military said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch but gave no details, saying an analysis is under way.

The office of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed on X that North Korea launched a suspected ballistic missile.

“The suspected ballistic missile from North Korea is not expected to reach Japan,” it said of the projectile filed toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

This launch came amid increased cross-border tension as the reclusive communist state has been sending balloons carrying garbage into South Korea.

North Korea’s last missile launch prior to this one came on May 30, when Seoul accused Pyongyang of firing a volley of around 10 short-range ballistic missiles.

One day later North Korean state media released images of leader Kim Jong Un supervising tests of a multiple rocket launcher system.

Analysts have suggested the nuclear-armed North could be testing and ramping up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine.

In a report last month the Pentagon said it had confirmed this behaviour.

North Korea has sent more trash-filled balloons southward this week, Seoul’s military said Tuesday, the latest in a series of border barrages that have sparked a tit-for-tat propaganda campaign.

Pyongyang has already sent more than a thousand balloons carrying trash in what it says is retaliation for balloons carrying propaganda criticising Kim’s rule floated north by activists.

In response, Seoul has fully suspended a tension-reducing military deal and restarted some propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the border.

Kim Jong Un’s sister and key government spokeswoman Kim Yo Jong warned this month that Seoul would “undoubtedly witness the new counteraction of the DPRK” if the leaflet drops and loudspeaker broadcasts continued.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russian Ambassador to South Korea Georgy Zinoviev arrives at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, June 21, 2024. South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest a defense pact with North Korea on Friday, two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement vowing mutual defense with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on a state visit to Pyongyang.
| Photo Credit: AP

South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest a defense pact with North Korea on June 21, two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement vowing mutual defense with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on a state visit to Pyongyang.

Earlier Friday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists flew balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border, and South Korea’s military said it had fired warning shots the previous day to repel North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the rivals’ land border for the third time this month.

That came two days after Moscow and Pyongyang reached a pact vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked, and a day after Seoul responded by saying it would consider providing arms to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion.

South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to convey Seoul’s stance on the deal between Putin and Kim and on alleged military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. Seoul’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately confirm what was said during the meeting.

Leafletting campaigns by South Korean civilian activists in recent weeks have prompted a resumption of Cold War-style psychological warfare along the inter-Korean border.

The South Korean civilian activists, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it sent 20 balloons carrying 300,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean pop songs and TV dramas, and 3,000 U.S. dollar bills from the South Korean border town of Paju on Thursday night.

Pyongyang resents such material and fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken Kim Jong Un’s grip on power, analysts say.

In a statement carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, called the activists “defector scum” and issued what appeared to be a threat of retaliation.

“When you do something you were clearly warned not to do, it’s only natural that you will find yourself dealing with something you didn’t have to,” she said, without specifying what the North would do.

After previous leafletting by South Korean activists, North Korea launched more than 1,000 balloons that dropped tons of trash in South Korea, smashing roof tiles and windows and causing other property damage. Kim Yo Jong previously hinted that balloons could become the North’s standard response to leafletting, saying that the North would respond by “scattering dozens of times more rubbish than is being scattered on us.”

In response, South Korea resumed anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts with military loudspeakers installed at the border for the first time in years, to which Kim Yo Jong, in another state media statement, warned that Seoul was “creating a prelude to a very dangerous situation.”

Tensions between the Koreas are at their highest in years as Kim Jong Un accelerates his nuclear weapons and missile development and attempts to strengthen his regional footing by aligning with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a standoff against the U.S.-led West.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, says it is considering upping support for Ukraine in response. Seoul has already provided humanitarian aid and other support while joining U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly provided arms, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.

Putin told reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday that supplying weapons to Ukraine would be “a very big mistake,” and said South Korea “shouldn’t worry” about the agreement if it isn’t planning aggression against Pyongyang.

North Korea is extremely sensitive to criticism of Kim’s authoritarian rule and efforts to reach its people with foreign news and other media.

In 2015, when South Korea restarted loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery rounds across the border, prompting South Korea to return fire, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.

South Korea’s military said there are signs that North Korea was installing its own speakers at the border, although they weren’t yet working.

In the latest border incident, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said several North Korean soldiers engaged in unspecified construction work briefly crossed the military demarcation line that divides the two countries at around 11 a.m. Thursday.

The South Korean military broadcast a warning and fired warning shots, after which the North Korean soldiers retreated. The joint chiefs didn’t immediately release more details, including why it was releasing the information a day late.

South Korea’s military says believes recent border intrusions were not intentional, as the North Korean soldiers have not returned fire and retreated after the warning shots.

The South’s military has observed the North deploying large numbers of soldiers in frontline areas to build suspected anti-tank barriers, reinforce roads and plant mines in an apparent attempt to fortify their side of the border. Seoul believes the efforts are likely aimed at preventing North Korean civilians and soldiers from escaping to the South.

A TV screen shows an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news program, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on June 19, 2024. North Korean leader Kim promised full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine before beginning a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Putin in Pyongyang on Wednesday, in a bid to expand their economic and military cooperation and show a united front against Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP

South Korea said on June 20 that it would consider sending arms to Ukraine, a major policy change suggested after Russia and North Korea rattled the region and beyond by signing a pact to come to each other’s defense in the event of war.

The comments from a senior presidential official came hours after North Korea’s state media released the details of the agreement, which observers said could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War. It comes at a time when Russia faces growing isolation over its war in Ukraine and both countries face escalating standoffs with the West.

According to the text of the deal published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, if either country gets invaded and is pushed into a state of war, the other must deploy “all means at its disposal without delay” to provide “military and other assistance.” But the agreement also says that such actions must be in accordance with the laws of both countries and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which recognizes a U.N. member state’s right to self-defense.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the pact at a summit on June 19 in Pyongyang. Both described it as a major upgrade of bilateral relations, covering security, trade, investment, cultural and humanitarian ties.

The office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement condemning the agreement, calling it a threat to the South’s security and a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, and warned that it would have negative consequences on Seoul’s relations with Moscow.

“It’s absurd that two parties with a history of launching wars of invasion — the Korean War and the war in Ukraine — are now vowing mutual military cooperation on the premise of a preemptive attack by the international community that will never happen,” Mr. Yoon’s office said.

Mr. Yoon’s national security adviser, Chang Ho-jin, said Seoul would reconsider the issue of providing arms to Ukraine to help the country fight off Russia’s invasion.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped military backed by the United States, has provided humanitarian aid and other support to Ukraine while joining U.S.-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing a longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflict.

The summit between Kim and Putin came as the U.S. and its allies expressed growing concern over a possible arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine, in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Following their summit, Mr. Kim said the two countries had a “fiery friendship,” and that the deal was their “strongest-ever treaty,” putting the relationship at the level of an alliance. He vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Mr. Putin called it a “breakthrough document” reflecting shared desires to move relations to a higher level.

North Korea and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty in 1961, which experts say necessitated Moscow’s military intervention if the North came under attack. The deal was discarded after the collapse of the USSR, replaced by one in 2000 that offered weaker security assurances.

There’s ongoing debate on how strong of a security commitment the deal entails. While some analysts see the agreement as a full restoration of the countries’ Cold War-era alliance, others say the deal seems more symbolic than substantial.

Ankit Panda, a senior analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the text appeared to be carefully worded as to not imply automatic military invention.

But “the big picture here is that both sides are willing to put down on paper, and show the world, just how widely they intend to expand the scope of their cooperation,” he said.

The deal was made as Mr. Putin visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years, a trip that showcased their personal and geopolitical ties with Kim hugging Putin twice at the airport, their motorcade rolling past giant Russian flags and Putin portraits, and a welcoming ceremony at Pyongyang’s main square attended by what appeared to be tens of thousands of spectators.

According to KCNA, the agreement also states that Pyongyang and Moscow must not enter into agreements with third parties if they infringe on the “core interests” of any of them and must not participate in actions that threaten those interests.

KCNA said the agreement requires the countries to take steps to prepare joint measures for the purpose of strengthening their defense capabilities to prevent war and protect regional and global peace and security. The agency didn’t specify what those steps are, or whether they would include combined military training and other cooperation.

The agreement also calls for the countries to actively cooperate in efforts to establish a “just and multipolar new world order,” KCNA said, underscoring how the countries are aligning in face of their separate confrontations with the United States.

How the pact affects Russia’s relations with the South is a key development to watch, said Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and director of the North Korea-focused 38 North website.

“Seoul had already signed onto sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, souring its relations with Moscow. Now with any ambiguity of Russia’s partnership with North Korea removed, how will Seoul respond?” she said. “Is there a point where it decides to cut or suspend diplomatic ties with Russia or expel its ambassador? And have we reached it?”

Mr. Kim in recent months has made Russia his priority as he pushes a foreign policy aimed at expanding relations with countries confronting Washington, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and trying to display a united front in Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Mr. Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the U.S., South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.

The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits an exhibition of IT and creative industry at the Labour Quarter creative cluster in Yakutsk, republic of Sakha also known as Yakutia, Russia Far East, Russia, on June 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

NATO is concerned about support Russia could provide for North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, the alliance’s head said on Tuesday as Russian President Vladimir Putin headed to the reclusive nuclear-armed country for the first time in 24 years.

Putin vowed on Tuesday to deepen trade and security ties with North Korea and to support it against the United States.

His state visit comes amid U.S. accusations that North Korea has supplied “dozens of ballistic missiles and over 11,000 containers of munitions to Russia” for use in Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a joint press conference after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Russia’s war in Ukraine was being propped up by China, North Korea and Iran, who all wanted to see the Western alliance fail.

“We are of course also concerned about the potential support that Russia provides to North Korea when it comes to supporting their missile and nuclear programs,” Stoltenberg said.

He said this and China’s support for Russia’s war economy showed how security challenges in Europe were linked to Asia and added that next month’s NATO summit in Washington would see a further strengthening of the alliance’s partnerships with Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.

Stoltenberg said there needed to be “consequences” at some stage for China.

“They cannot continue to have normal trade relationships with countries in Europe and at the same time fuel the biggest war we have seen in Europe since the Second World War,” he said.

Stoltenberg said it was too early to say what those consequences might be, “but it has to be an issue that we need to address because to continue as we do today is not viable.”

Blinken said Putin’s visit to North Korea was a sign of his “desperation” to strengthen relations with countries that can support his war in Ukraine.

Blinken added that China’s support had enabled Russian to maintain its defense industrial base, supplying 70% of the machine tools Moscow is importing and 90% of the microelectronics. “That has to stop,” he said.

Last week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Washington was concerned by what Russia would give North Korea in return for the weapons Pyongyang has supplied.

“Hard currency? Is it energy? Is it capabilities that allow them to advance their nuclear or missile products? We don’t know. But we’re concerned by that and watching carefully,” he said.

The top U.S. arms control official, Under Secretary of State Bonnie Jenkins, has said she believes North Korea is keen to acquire fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment or materials, and other advanced technologies from Russia.

This undated handout photo provided on June 18, 2024 by the South Korean Defence Ministry shows North Korean soldiers working at an undisclosed location near the heavily fortified border, as seen from a South Korean guard area.
| Photo Credit: AFP/SOUTH KOREAN DEFENCE MINISTRY

Dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border on June 18 but retreated after warning shots were fired, Seoul said, the second such incident in two weeks as Pyongyang reinforces its frontiers with the South.

Landmine explosions near the border also injured multiple North Korean soldiers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that Pyongyang had recently deployed troops in the area to clear scrub and lay mines, as relations between the two Koreas plummet.

The countries technically remain at war as the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, and the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula is already one of the most heavily mined places on earth.

But North Korea is moving to reinforce that, laying more landmines, reinforcing tactical roads and adding what appear to be anti-tank barriers, Seoul’s military said.

The JCS said it believed the Tuesday crossing — like a previous one on June 9 — was accidental, with some 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers carrying work tools involved in the incident, which took place around 8:30 am Tuesday (2330 GMT).

“Dozens of North Korean troops crossed the Military Demarcation Line today… (and) retreated northwards after warning shots” were fired, a JCS official said.

North Korean soldiers tasked with reinforcing the border had suffered “multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents” but they “appear to be recklessly pressing ahead with the operations,” the official said.

“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the JCS official said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to visit Pyongyang later Tuesday, sparking concern in Seoul, which has accused the North of shipping arms to Moscow for use in Ukraine in exchange for help with its nascent satellite program.

‘No reconciliation’

“This has rather symbolic significance,” Koh Yu-hwan, North Korean studies emeritus professor at Dongguk University told AFP, saying adding new mines was making it clear Pyongyang did not want dialogue with the South.

“By laying mines, North Korea is demonstrating once again that, as per the instructions of the supreme leader (Kim Jong Un), there will be no reconciliation with the South,” he added.

“North Korea is not laying mines across the entire frontline, but rather in areas that are easily observable by the South. They are also blocking roads and railways that were previously areas of inter-Korean cooperation.”

During a period of warmer ties in 2018, the two Koreas removed landmines along a section of the heavily fortified border in a bid to ease military tensions.

Earlier this month, around 20 North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line between the two countries in a section of the border “overgrown with trees”, according to Seoul’s military, which assessed the incursion to be accidental.

That crossing came as North Korea was sending more than a thousand balloons laden with trash southward — a response, it said, to balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda sent north by activists.

The South Korean government in turn suspended a 2018 tension-reducing military deal and restarted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, infuriating the North, which warned Seoul was creating “a new crisis”.

Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP that the North Korean military was trying to survey the border area to install more barriers.

“Engineering and observation units have increased their presence in the area. It is believed that the disorderly actions of those who are unfamiliar with the minefields have led to these mine-related accidents.”

Seoul:

Dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the heavily fortified border with the South on Tuesday and retreated after warning shots were fired, Seoul’s military said, adding landmine explosions had injured Pyongyang’s troops in the area.

It is the second such incident involving North Korean troops in two weeks, with Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff saying they believed the Tuesday crossing — like a previous one on June 9 — was accidental.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice not a peace treaty, with the demilitarized zone and line of control dividing the peninsula one of the most heavily mined places in the world.

“Dozens of North Korean troops crossed the Military Demarcation Line today… (and) retreated northwards after warning shots” were fired, a JCS official said. 

Seoul’s military also said Tuesday that several North Korean soldiers had been injured when a landmine exploded near the border, without revealing the date.

The North Koreans were working on creating “barren land” and laying mines along the border, an official from the JCS said, but ended up “suffering multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents during their work”. 

Even so, the North’s military “appear to be recklessly pressing ahead with the operations,” the official said.

This year, North Korea has been working to remove streetlights from roads and dig up railway tracks that connected the two countries when ties were better, they added.

Since April, North Korea has deployed troops along the front line “to create barren land”, the official said, adding the North was also laying more landmines, reinforcing tactical roads, and adding what appeared to be anti-tank barriers.

“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the JCS official said.

The vast majority of North Koreans who escape the country first go to China before making their way to the South, usually via another country, with only a handful ever managing to cross the DMZ, which is riddled with landmines and has a heavy military presence on both sides.

 June 9 incident 

The incident comes as North Korea prepares to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin for a rare state visit likely to boost defence ties between the two isolated countries.

On June 9, Seoul said that North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the line that separates the two militaries — saying it happened in an overgrown area of the heavily fortified border area and was likely accidental.

About 20 North Korean soldiers crossed the border in that incident, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years.

In recent weeks, North Korea has sent more than a thousand balloons laden with trash including cigarette butts and toilet paper southward — a response, it says, to balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda sent north by activists.

In response, the South Korean government has suspended a 2018 tension-reducing military deal and restarted loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border, infuriating the North, which warned Seoul was creating “a new crisis”.

“The recent increase in the entry of North Korean military into the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is due to the need for mine clearance and surveying for the installation of barriers,” Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, told AFP. 

“Engineering and observation units have increased their presence in the area. It is believed that the disorderly actions of those who are unfamiliar with the minefields have led to these mine-related accidents.” 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

This photo provided by South Korea Defence Ministry, shows balloons with trash presumably sent by North Korea, in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. North Korea launched more trash-carrying balloons toward the South after a similar campaign earlier in the week, according to South Korea’s military, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea launched more trash-carrying balloons toward the South after a similar campaign earlier in the week, according to South Korea’s military, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry did not immediately comment on the number of balloons it had detected or how many have landed in South Korea. The military advised people to beware of falling objects and not to touch objects suspected to be from North Korea, but report them to military or police offices instead.

In Seoul, the capital, the city government sent text alerts saying that unidentified objects suspected to be flown from North Korea were being detected in skies near the city and that the military was responding to them.

The North’s balloon launches added to a recent series of provocative steps, which include its failed spy satellite launch and and a barrage of short-range missiles launches this week that the North said was intended to demonstrate its ability to attack the South preemptively.

South Korea’s military dispatched chemical rapid response and explosive clearance teams to recover the debris from some 260 North Korean balloons that were found in various parts of the country from Tuesday night to Wednesday. The military said the balloons carried various types of trash and manure but no dangerous substances like chemical, biological or radioactive materials.

In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, confirmed that the North sent the balloons to make good on her country’s recent threat to “scatter mounds of wastepaper and filth” in South Korea in response to leafleting campaigns by South Korean activists.

She hinted that balloons could become the North’s standard response to leafletting moving forward, saying that the North would respond by “scattering rubbish dozens of times more than those being scattered to us.”

North Korea is extremely sensitive about any outside attempt to undermine Kim Jong Un’s absolute control over the country’s 26 million people, most of whom have little access to foreign news.

In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory after a furious response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2014, North Korea fired at propaganda balloons flying toward its territory and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.

In 2022, North Korea even suggested that balloons flown from South Korea had caused a COVID-19 outbreak in the isolated nation, a highly questionable claim that appeared to be an attempt to blame the South for worsening inter-Korean relations.

Seoul, South Korea:

North Korean state media on Friday released images of leader Kim Jong Un supervising tests of a multiple rocket launcher system, a day after Seoul accused Pyongyang of firing a volley of short-range ballistic missiles.

The photos showed Kim, in a brown leather jacket, smiling with uniformed generals as he supervised the simultaneous launch of what appeared to be 18 projectiles.

The test involved “super-large multiple rocket sub-units”, according to a report by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Analysts have suggested the nuclear-armed North could be testing and ramping up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine, something the Pentagon said it had confirmed in a report released this week.

Images from the drill showed the 600mm multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), which North Korea has said can be fitted with nuclear warheads.

The exercises were meant to “serve as an occasion in clearly showing what consequences our rivals will face if they provoke us,” the KCNA report said.

The drills showed that the North “will not hesitate to carry out a preemptive attack by invoking the right to self-defence at any time,” it added.

KCNA said the rockets fired had “accurately hit an island target 365 km (226 miles) away”.

On Thursday, South Korea’s military said it had detected the launch of around 10 short-range ballistic missiles.

Seoul’s military also put the range of those missiles at about 350 kilometres (217 miles), while calling the launch a “provocation”.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the firing of the ballistic missiles — a violation of UN sanctions — as “reckless behavior which poses a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula”.

On Monday, North Korea attempted to put a second spy satellite into orbit, but it ended in a mid-air explosion.

The attempt came just hours after Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo held a rare trilateral summit, where they called for Pyongyang to give up its nukes.

A day later, North Korea sent hundreds of trash-filled balloons across the border, in what it described as retaliation for balloons full of anti-Kim propaganda sent northwards by activists in the South.

Analysts have said North Korea’s rocket launcher systems are capable of hitting Seoul, which is only some 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two countries.

 Trash balloons 

Yang Moo-jin, president of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, said Pyongyang’s latest actions, including the trash-filled balloons, were part of an attempt to divert attention away from the satellite launch failure.

North Korea was also “trying to convey a message that the military initiative on the Korean Peninsula belongs to Pyongyang, not South Korea or the United States,” he said.

In a separate KCNA report Friday, North Korea accused Washington of deploying its RC-135U reconnaissance aircraft from Japan to the Korean peninsula earlier this week.

“Other spying aircraft of the US” and South Korea’s air force, “including U-2S and RQ-4B, (engaged) in round-the-clock monitoring and spying on the DPRK, seriously violating its sovereignty and security,” it said, using North Korea’s official name.

“The US and other hostile forces are bound to meet unforeseen disaster for their bluffing and reckless espionage,” the report added.

A new report by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, meanwhile, said an analysis of debris found in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region in January confirmed Russia was using North Korean ballistic missiles in its invasion.

The North recently said the country would equip its military with a new 240mm multiple rocket launcher starting this year, adding a “significant change” for the army’s artillery combat capabilities was underway.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul, South Korea:

North Korea fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles early Thursday, Seoul’s military said, hours after Pyongyang sent hundreds of trash-filled balloons across the border to punish South Korea.

The launch follows a failed attempt by the nuclear-armed North to put a second spy satellite into orbit on Monday, shortly after Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo held a rare summit and called for Pyongyang to give up their nukes.

Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister on Thursday referred to the balloon barrage, which reportedly contained animal faeces, as “sincere presents” for the South in a statement, saying they were justified retaliation for anti-Kim propaganda sent northwards by activists.

North Korea also hit back at the UN Security Council, which will hold a meeting Friday to discuss the failed satellite launch, which violated a raft of UN sanctions on Pyongyang’s use of ballistic technology.

Early Thursday, Seoul’s military said it had detected the launch of what is suspected to be “around 10 short-range ballistic missiles”, fired into waters east of the Korean peninsula.

The missiles flew around 350 kilometres (217 miles), Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, calling the launch a “provocation” and saying it was analysing the specifics alongside the United States and Japan.

Japan also confirmed the launch, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida telling reporters the ballistic missiles “appeared to have fallen outside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone.”

Tokyo “strongly condemns” the launch, Kishida said, adding they had already lodged a protest.

Kishida had been in Seoul on Monday to meet South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese Premier Li Qiang for the countries’ first trilateral summit since 2019, where they reaffirmed their commitment to the “denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.

North Korea said that even discussing denuclearisation was a “grave provocation” that would violate the country’s constitution, changed in 2023 to enshrine its status as a nuclear state.

It conducted its failed satellite launch just hours later, which was widely condemned including by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

It then sent balloons across the border late Tuesday, before firing its salvo of ballistic missiles Thursday.

“It is unprecedented that such a large number of short-range missiles were fired simultaneously,” Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, told AFP.

“It appears to be the North’s protest of the ‘denuclearisation’ pledge agreed at the three-way summit and the calling for the UN Security Council meeting to discuss its satellite launch,” Hong said, calling it a “tit for tat approach”.

All signs indicate “this decision was made at the highest decision-making body,” he added.

UN meeting 

Analysts say there is significant technological overlap between space launch capabilities and the development of ballistic missiles.

Putting a reconnaissance satellite into orbit has long been a top priority for Kim’s regime, and it claimed to have succeeded in November, after two failed attempts last year.

But Pyongyang said the rocket carrying its “Malligyong-1-1” reconnaissance satellite exploded minutes after launch due to a suspected engine problem.

In a speech released by the official Korean Central News Agency late Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country was undeterred.

“Although we failed to achieve the results we had hoped to get in the recent reconnaissance satellite launch, we must never feel scared or dispirited but make still greater efforts,” he said.

“It is natural that one learns more and makes greater progress after experiencing failure,” he said, according to the transcript of the speech, given at the Academy of Defence Sciences.

Also on Thursday, North Korea released a statement calling UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “the most spiritless and weak-willed secretary-general in the history of the United Nations” ahead of the UN Security Council meeting on the launch.

Pyongyang said it had to express “deep concern about the fact that the UNSC is going to convene an open meeting again to call the DPRK’s legitimate satellite launch into question,” said the statement by Kim Son Gyong, a North Korean foreign ministry official.

For the North, “the launch of a military reconnaissance satellite is an inevitable undertaking for bolstering up the might of self-defence,” he added.

Seoul claims Kim received Russian technical assistance for its successful November launch in return for sending containers of weapons to Moscow for use in Ukraine.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Seoul:

North Korea on Thursday fired an unspecified ballistic missile towards the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s military said, just days after Pyongyang’s failed attempt to launch a spy satellite.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide further details in its statement.

Japan’s coastguard and prime minister’s office said the North had fired a suspected ballistic missile, adding they were gathering more information.

North Korea’s latest attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit ended in a mid-air explosion on Monday, Pyongyang said, after Seoul and Tokyo had criticised the planned launch.

Japanese broadcaster NHK ran footage of what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky, which then exploded into a fireball, saying it had filmed it from northeast China at the same time as the attempted launch.

Putting a reconnaissance satellite into orbit has long been a top priority for Kim Jong Un’s regime, and it claimed to have succeeded in November, after two failed attempts last year.

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