North Korea fired "around a dozen" short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Thursday, Seoul's defense ministry said, less than a week after South Korea proposed talks over a growing border row. The launches follow a slew of recent weapons tests by Pyongyang, including a new precision-guided torpedo system and an intermediate-range hypersonic missile, both of which were said to employ AI technology. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said its military detected "around a dozen short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Wonsan area of North Korea towards the East Sea", the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. The missiles flew about 250 kilometers, and "South Korea and the United States are conducting a detailed analysis of their exact specifications", Seoul's military said, adding it had stepped up surveillance of possible additional launches. The Japan Coast Guard had earlier urged ships in the area to be vigilant. Seoul's National Security Office, meanwhile, said the launches violated UN Security Council resolutions, labelling them "serious acts that do nothing to help manage the current situation". Thursday's missile flurry comes against the backdrop of growing tensions over a landmine explosion along the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas that saw three South Korean soldiers wounded. A joint Seoul-UN investigation earlier this month concluded that North Korea planted the landmines over a year ago. Seoul accused Pyongyang of "a clear violation of the Armistice Agreement" and demanded an apology, something the North has mockingly dismissed. - 'Show of force' - "This should be seen as a fairly high-level show of force," Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, told AFP. "North Korea is demonstrating that it has the capability to completely destroy major South Korean and US military facilities," he said. Pyongyang was also sending a political message, Lim added, by "showing off its overwhelming military power and warning Seoul not to interfere with its efforts to fortify the border". Last week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the North would place loudspeakers on standby along the border "within days" and had put unspecified "new counter means" on alert. Both countries have occasionally turned to loudspeakers blaring propaganda across their shared border and other psychological warfare methods. South Korea days later proposed military talks with the North to "mutually confirm the precise location" of their border and discuss restoring communication channels, but Pyongyang has yet to respond. The DMZ is one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, and landmine incidents have previously heightened tensions between the two countries. Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war, as the Korean conflict ended in 1953 with a truce rather than a peace treaty. The ratcheting tensions come as US President Donald Trump's recent overtures to North Korea have raised concerns that Seoul -- an ally of Washington -- could be sidelined in potential nuclear talks involving Pyongyang. In his most recent comments, Trump seemingly downplayed the possibility of a summit while insisting his relationship with Kim Jong Un was "very good". In October, North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles a day after Trump suggested the two might meet this year.
