North Korea launches ballistic missile from Wonsan area to the East Sea... Three days after the demand for an apology for the landmine incident

Three days after the military's request for an apology from North Korea for land mines... Ballistic missile in 13 days

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Cheol-seon = The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that North Korea launched a ballistic missile into the East Sea on the morning of the 3rd.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff announced, “At around 6:30 a.m. on the 3rd, we detected a ballistic missile launched from the area of ​​Wonsan, North Korea, into the East Sea.”

Currently, military authorities are analyzing the specifications and range of the ballistic missile.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “Our military has strengthened surveillance and vigilance in preparation for additional launches, while South Korea, the United States, and Japan are maintaining full readiness by closely sharing information related to ‘North Korean ballistic missiles.’”

This launch came three days after our military authorities demanded an apology and responsible action from North Korea in connection with the recent incident in which three South Korean soldiers were seriously injured by a land mine explosion in the area south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) in the 25th Division's 25th Division's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the Western Front.

On the 30th of last month, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement issued by Lieutenant General Kang Hyeon-woo, the head of the Operational Headquarters, that our soldiers were seriously injured by North Korean land mines and demanded that North Korea immediately stop the so-called 'border line fortification' work.

However, on the same day, in a statement by North Korean Workers' Party General Affairs Director Kim Yo-jong, North Korea denied the announcement by our military authorities that a North Korean landmine had exploded, saying it was an "obvious self-made play" and that "our soldiers have never crossed the border."

In addition, in an additional statement released the previous day, Kim Yo-jong criticized President Lee Jae-myung's Armed Forces Day commemoration speech, saying that he would continue to take measures to reduce military tensions between North and South Korea, as a "self-made farce," and dismissed Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's proposal for inter-Korean dialogue as "a delusion and one-sided complaint that is not worth responding to."

This is North Korea's 15th ballistic missile launch this year and the first in 13 days since the 20th of last month.

On the 20th of last month, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) three hours apart from the Wonsan area into the East Sea.

Two days later, North Korea announced that it was a launch test of the 'Hwasongpo-11Ma-1', an improved version of the hypersonic missile 'Hwasong-11Ma'. The Hwaseong-11ma is a missile equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV)-shaped warhead on the KN-23 launch vehicle, North Korea's representative short-range ballistic missile.

It is also called a 'game changer' as it combines a speed as fast as a ballistic missile with a flight altitude as low as a cruise missile, and has anomalous mobility to evade missile defense networks.