Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean defense minister, declared on Saturday that the country had fired an intermediate‑range ballistic missile equipped with artificial intelligence from the Wonsan area, the projectile arcing over 700 kilometres before re‑entering the sea.
The launch follows a June 4 blast inside the Demilitarized Zone that wounded three South Korean soldiers, a strike the United Nations Command traced to mines laid by Pyongyang on the South side of the border.
Analysts say the missile's alleged AI‑driven trajectory changes pose new interception challenges, but experts caution that North Korea’s technology still lags behind that of the United States and Russia.
Seoul has demanded a formal apology and is coordinating with Washington for a heightened missile‑defense posture, while Japan has pledged to share radar data to track the new weapon.