North Korea fires unidentified projectile toward sea off east coast, Seoul says

SEOUL, Oct 3 - North Korea fired an unidentified projectile toward the sea off its east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The launch came after Pyongyang's Kim Yo Jong, powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement on Friday that dismissed Seoul's demand for an apology for North Korean mines that seriously wounded South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarised Zone, a heavily fortified area between the two Koreas.

South Korea said this week North Korean mines caused the blast that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission inside the 4-km-wide (2.5-mile) border that stretches across the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has sharply ramped up hostility against the South in recent years, disavowing unification as a national goal and calling South Korea its "primary foe." REUTERS