North Korea fired several ballistic missiles; Escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula

North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into its East Sea on Monday, South Korea's military said. Seoul described this action as a "show of force" in response to its recent hypersonic missile test and called it a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

On Monday, one of the missiles fired from the Pyongyang area flew more than 900 kilometers (559 miles), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The Joint Chiefs of Staff did not specify how many missiles were detected.

Japan's coast guard also said on Monday that North Korea had fired two unidentified projectiles, believed to be ballistic missiles, that appeared to have already fallen.

South Korea's presidential office said Pyongyang's repeated missile launches violate UN Security Council resolutions and called for an immediate halt.

Jang Do-yong, a spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the latest missile launch appeared to be a show of force in response to South Korea's hypersonic missile test.

On Thursday, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung oversaw the country's first hypersonic missile test; The move is a rare public display of a missile test by a South Korean president.

Lee's office said the hypersonic weapon, once fully developed, would enhance South Korea's ability to launch surprise attacks on key targets in the "Korean Peninsula theater of operations."

North Korea also tested an intermediate-range hypersonic missile on October 3, designed to evade missile defenses in South Korea and Japan.

Last week, Seoul issued an apology after a land mine detonated in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, injuring three soldiers. A joint investigation by South Korea and the United Nations concluded that the two mines were planted by North Korean forces about a year ago. Pyongyang denied this claim and accused South Korea of ​​provocation.

Before the detonation of the cross-border mine, Seoul said it was making "initial coordination efforts" to facilitate dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington. In his first speech after coming to power in 2025, Mr. Lee pledged to resume dialogue with North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his nuclear weapons program while rejecting offers from the United States and South Korea to resume stalled diplomacy. Talks between Kim and then US President Donald Trump ended abruptly in 2019. Kim Jong-un's government continues to urge Washington to abandon its "hostile" policy and drop demands for North Korea's denuclearization as a condition for talks.