SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea on Today, South Korean officials said, its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger.
South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said the weapons flew 420 kilometers (260 miles) and 270 kilometers (167 miles), respectively. It said it is working with the United States to determine more details, such as the types of weapons that were fired.
South Koreas military said earlier that at least one projectile was launched from the Sino-ri area of North Pyongan province, an area known to have one of North Koreas oldest missile bases where a brigade operates mid-range Rodong missiles. It later said there were two launches from the nearby town of Kusong, where North Korea conducted its first successful flight tests of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range missile and Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, both in 2017.
Kusong is also home to missile test facilities that were critical to the development of North Koreas solid-fuel Pukguksong-2, which was successfully flight-tested for the first time in February 2017, in the Norths first missile test after President Donald Trump took office.
The latest launches came as U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun visits South Korea, and hours after the North described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise. North Korea also ridiculed South Korea for criticizing those launches.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged North Korea to refrain from actions that could impede diplomacy. In an interview with the KBS television network, Moon also said Seoul will explore various options to help revive the talks, including providing food aid to the North and pushing for his fourth summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Moons office earlier said the North Korean launches were very concerning and detrimental to efforts to improve inter-Korean ties and ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
There was no immediate comment from the United States.
Some analysts have said that if North Korea resumes testing the kind of longer-range banned ballistic weapons that it fired in unusually large numbers in 2017 when many feared a U.S.-North Korea standoff could end in war it may signal that North Korea is turning away from diplomacy.
The tensions in 2017 were followed by a surprising diplomatic outreach by North Korea in 2018, when Kim attended summits with the South Korean and Chinese presidents and with Trump. But North Korea has not received what it wants most from its summitry: relief from punitive sanctions imposed over its nuclear and missile programs.
A summit earlier this year between Trump and Kim ended in failure, with the United States saying that North Korea was not offering to take enough disarmament steps in return for the widespread sanctions relief it sought.
In Geneva, North Korean Ambassador Han Tae Song likened the economic sanctions on Today to crimes.
Just ahead of the Today launch, senior defense officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan met in Seoul to discuss North Koreas earlier launches on Saturday and other security issues. Details from the meeting werent immediately announced.
Experts who analyzed photos from North Korean state media say its clear that the North tested a new solid-fuel missile on Saturday that appears to be modeled after Russias Iskander short-range ballistic missile system.
With the consecutive weapons launches, North Korea is pressuring South Korea to turn away from the United States and support North Koreas position more strongly, said Du Hyeogn Cha, a visiting scholar at Seouls Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Following the collapse of the Trump-Kim meeting, North Korea demanded that South Korea proceed with joint economic projects that have been held back by U.S.-led sanctions against the North.
By firing weapons that directly threaten South Korea but not the U.S. mainland or its Pacific territories, North Korea also appears to be testing how far Washington will tolerate its bellicosity without actually causing the nuclear negotiations to collapse, Cha said.
