N. Korea tests evasive missile as border mine tensions rise

Seoul North Korea has tested an intermediate-range strategic missile in a drill overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong said on Saturday, as tensions remain high on the Korean Peninsula. Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, said the missile was launched toward the sea off the country’s east coast. Her statement followed an announcement by South Korea’s military that Pyongyang had fired a ballistic missile that travelled more than 700 kilometres toward the sea. According to Kim Yo Jong, the drill involved a “strategic weapon” operated by a firepower sub-unit assigned to a special mission. She said Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the exercise. Kim also criticised South Korea and Japan over their assessments of the missile’s flight distance, claiming their results demonstrated limitations in their tracking capabilities. She said North Korean missiles could use a wave-like trajectory that made them difficult to track from their first skip points. She further claimed the missile had high speed and could change its flight orbit at low altitude using artificial intelligence technology. North Korea did not provide evidence to support the claims. The latest launch marks another missile test by Pyongyang this year. North Korea has conducted more than 10 such tests, with some involving what it described as new weapons systems. The launch came a day after Kim Yo Jong rejected Seoul’s demand for an apology over mines that South Korea said had seriously wounded its soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone.