North Korea rocket launches risk to civil aviation, maritime traffic, UN warns

North Korea: North Korea is restoring front-line guard posts that it had dismantled during a previous period of inter-Korean rapprochement.

North Korea's rocket launches represent a serious risk to international civil aviation and maritime traffic, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council on Monday.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un is seen. (AP)

"While the DPRK issued a pre-launch notification to the Japanese Coast Guard, it did not issue airspace or maritime safety notifications to the International Maritime Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, or the International Telecommunications Union," said Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.

North Korea is restoring front-line guard posts that it had dismantled during a previous period of inter-Korean rapprochement, South Korea's military said Monday, after animosities spiked between the rivals over the North's recent spy satellite launch.

The two Koreas previously dismantled or disarmed 11 of their guard posts inside their heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarised Zone, under a 2018 deal meant to ease front-line military confrontations. But the deal is now in danger of being scrapped as both Koreas openly threaten to breach it.

The 2018 agreement required the two Koreas to halt aerial surveillance and live-fire exercises at no-fly and buffer zones that they established along the DMZ, as well as remove some of their front-line guard posts and land mines. The deal left South Korea with 50 board guard posts and North Korea with 150.