North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles, adding to streak of weapons tests

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 that he said suggested it may have been a hypersonic weapon. There were no reports of damage to aircraft or vessels.

North Korea steps up weapons testing

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.

Seoul and Tokyo condemn the launches

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.

Nuclear standoff keeps diplomacy frozen

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.