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North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Monday, with the projectiles traveling more than 900 kilometers (559 miles), South Korea’s military said, as tensions remain high following recent missile tests and a deadly land mine incident near the inter-Korean border.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, or JCS, detected the launches at around 9:20 a.m. local time from the Pyongyang area, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The South Korean military said it had strengthened surveillance for possible additional launches and was sharing information with the U.S. and Japan while maintaining heightened readiness.
Japan also detected two suspected ballistic missiles, which reportedly landed outside its exclusive economic zone.
Monday’s launches came a little over a week after North Korea conducted an Oct. 3 missile test from Wonsan that Pyongyang described as training for troops operating its hypersonic strategic weapons system.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the missile was capable of changing its flight path at low altitude and incorporated artificial intelligence technology.
South Korea conducted its own first test launch of a domestically developed hypersonic glide vehicle Thursday.
South Korea’s presidential office said the weapon provided “a new deterrence capability capable of striking key targets within the Korean Peninsula’s operational environment.”
The latest launches also come amid heightened tensions following a Sept. 21 land mine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone that injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously.
A joint investigation by Seoul and the U.N. Command concluded that North Korean forces had deliberately planted the mines in the South Korean-controlled area more than a year earlier.
Pyongyang denied responsibility, accused Seoul of fabricating the findings and warned of retaliation if South Korea took military counteraction.
North Korea had not issued a public statement on Monday’s launches.
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