North Korea Fires About a Dozen Ballistic Missiles Days After Seoul Proposes Border Talks

North Korea fired about a dozen short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Thursday, Oct. 29, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The launch came about a week after Seoul proposed military talks to calm a fast-deteriorating border dispute.

The missiles lifted off from the Wonsan area at about 12:30 p.m. local time and flew roughly 250 kilometers, according to the JCS. Japan's Defense Ministry separately reported what may have been a ballistic missile that fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. The Japan Coast Guard warned vessels to avoid any fallen objects.

Seoul said it has stepped up surveillance for more launches and is sharing information with the United States and Japan.

What was fired

A South Korean military official said the launch appears to have involved the KN-25, a 600-millimeter multiple rocket launcher that Pyongyang claims can carry its Hwasan-31 tactical nuclear warhead. The JCS also said the North may have run a mixed-salvo drill combining ballistic missiles with cruise missiles, drones or smaller rocket artillery.

That was the second launch this month. Pyongyang test-fired what it called tactical ballistic missiles on Oct. 12, saying the aim was to improve a key weapons component.

South Korea's presidential office held an emergency meeting of its Office of National Security after Thursday's launch. It urged the North to halt provocations and said the tests directly violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The offer Pyongyang has not answered

On Oct. 23, South Korea's Defense Ministry proposed inter-Korean military talks. Director of Defense Policy Kim Hong-cheol said the goals were to mutually confirm the exact location of the Military Demarcation Line, restore military communication lines and discuss measures to prevent accidental clashes.

Kim said trilateral talks including the U.S.-led United Nations Command are possible, with dates and venue to be worked out through Panmunjom. He also said Seoul proposed military talks in November 2025 and got no reply.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young renewed the appeal on Wednesday, Oct. 28. "South and North Korea should align their positions on the MDL through dialogue," Chung said in an address read on his behalf at a forum in Goyang.

North Korea has not responded to the proposal.

The landmine dispute

The tension traces to Sept. 21, when landmine explosions in the Demilitarized Zone injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. Seoul accused North Korean troops of planting the mines south of the demarcation line.

The United Nations Command said a joint investigation with South Korea found an active North Korean mine south of the line and determined an armistice violation had occurred. A joint South Korea-United Nations investigation also concluded the mines were planted more than a year ago, and Seoul has demanded an apology.

Pyongyang rejects all of it. North Korea's U.N. ambassador, Kim Song, told the Security Council in a letter that South Korea was "groundlessly shifting the blame" for a "dubious 'mine explosion incident'" and called Seoul's claims a "farce to evade the responsibility for the ever-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula." He warned that violations of North Korean sovereignty could trigger self-defense.

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, called South Korean demands for an apology "despicable." She also turned down an offer of medical equipment from Seoul.

A border nobody can agree on

North Korean troops have been building roads, fences and laying mines along the frontier. Seoul says they have repeatedly crossed the demarcation line while doing it, prompting warning broadcasts and warning shots from the South.

The line itself is part of the problem. Only about 200 of the 1,292 markers installed under the 1953 armistice can still be identified, according to Yonhap.

On Oct. 21, North Korea said it had strengthened its border defenses. Kim Yo-jong said, per North Korea's state news agency KCNA, that she inspected several posts along the border on Wednesday and that the frontier had been "clearly blocked and turned into a fortress more thoroughly." She accused the South of "provocative warning loudspeaker blaring and shots" in at least two spots along the border on Oct. 21 and described the North as having shown "great restraint."

She warned that if South Korean warning shots caused "actual harm" to North Korean territory or personnel, border guards "will show no mercy for the armed gangsters bereft of reason." North Korean "tactical hunting teams," she said, are taking new positions.

A North Korean self-propelled howitzer was also spotted this week on the western front, far enough south for South Korean cameras to capture it. A JCS official said the military reads the move as aimed mainly "for show," and that the gun appears to be an older piece rather than a new system.

What comes next

North Korea has given no public explanation for Thursday's launch. Seoul's offer of talks remains on the table with no reply.

The next marker is close. Kim Yo-jong said the North's loudspeakers for psychological warfare would be operational before the end of the month. Whether Pyongyang follows through, and whether the South answers with broadcasts of its own, will show if the standoff is heading toward talks or toward the kind of accidental clash Seoul says it is trying to prevent.