AP, SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile off its east coast Monday as part of its annual military exercise, South Korean military officials said.
The Office of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to further identify the type of the missile, but said North Korea has fired the same type of missile two or three times this year.
“The land-to-ship missile North Korea test-fired today is seen as part of its annual exercise,” said a spokesman of the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The spokesman spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
The test-fire came as President Bush in Bangkok promoted a plan in which five nations – the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea – would jointly give North Korea written assurances it wouldn't be attacked in exchange for its promise to dismantle its nuclear program.
A day earlier, Bush dismissed North Korea's demand that the United States sign a nonaggression pact in exchange for nuclear concessions.
In Tokyo, Cabinet Office spokesman Yukinori Morita and the Defense Agency said the Japanese government had received an unconfirmed report about a land-to-ship missile being fired into the sea between North Korea and Japan around noon on Monday. But they said they hadn't verified the information.
The missile would not have posed any immediate security threat to neighboring countries, a Japanese Defense Agency official said on condition of anonymity. He said the report indicated the missile had a range of about 60 miles.
Monday's launch was the first missile test-fire by Pyongyang since a reported test in April.
The launch came amid tensions over a yearlong standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions.
North Korea test-fired two short-range, anti-ship missiles in late February and early March. In those tests, North Korea fired its missiles at targets about 70 miles off its east coast. Washington and South Korea have criticized the tests as attempts to force the United States into direct talks.
In April, U.S. officials said North Korea test-fired another short-range anti-ship missile off its west coast, in an apparent response to the launching of spy satellites by Tokyo to monitor the isolated communist nation days earlier. Japanese officials initially confirmed the firing, only to deny it hours later.
North Korea's neighbors have grown increasingly wary of the North's arsenal in recent years.
In 1998, North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. That missile, called Taepodong-1, can reach all of Japan, experts say.
North Korea is believed to be developing missiles that could reach parts of the mainland United States.
Tensions have risen in the region since October last year, when Washington said that North Korea admitted running a clandestine nuclear weapons program. North Korea denies making such an admission.
Representatives from the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia met in Beijing in August to discuss ways to end the nuclear crisis. But the meeting ended without agreement on when to hold a next round of talks because of strident differences between North Korea and the United States.
North Korea demands that the United States sign a nonaggression treaty, provide economic aid and open diplomatic ties in exchange for the North dismantling its nuclear facilities.
