North Korea says its new guided rockets can fly 71 miles, far enough to cover Seoul, and calls for "the deadliest" forces on the border.

Briefing note: North Korea says it tested upgraded 240mm guided rockets on Tuesday as part of a five-year plan to modernize its artillery and missile forces, UPI reports, citing the state-run Korean Central News Agency. According to KCNA, the rockets carry an "autonomous pinpoint guide system" and can fly 62 miles on a standard path or 71 miles in a "combined glide mode." Seoul, home to about 9.6 million people, sits roughly 30 miles from the border. Pak Jong Chon, vice chairman of the ruling party's Central Military Commission, stressed "the need to concentrate the deadliest and destructive attack forces on southern border." Those performance figures come from Pyongyang's state media. The test followed another weapons launch over the weekend, and it came as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung used the U.N. General Assembly to call for a swift resumption of U.S.-North Korea dialogue, which he hopes could lead to talks on ending the Korean War. Separately, explosions in the Demilitarized Zone critically injured two South Korean soldiers Monday, and investigators are examining mine fragments. Kim Jong Un declared the two Koreas "hostile states" in late 2023, and his troops have since laid mines, erected barriers and reinforced roads inside the DMZ. Assessment: the Korean War stopped under an armistice in 1953, but no peace treaty was ever signed. An offer of talks from Seoul and new rockets from Pyongyang in the same week is the signature of a frozen conflict, not a finished one. Watch the DMZ, not the podium.