Agence France-Presse,
Seoul: North Korea's latest missile launches were aimed at testing and developing new ballistic missiles, South Korea's defence ministry said Thursday. The ministry confirmed belatedly that the North fired ground-to-ground and ground-to-ship missiles with a range of about 100 kilometres (62 miles) into the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea respectively on Wednesday.
The launches appeared to be aimed at testing “new missiles which have not been deployed and are still in the development stage,” it said in a statement.
The ministry, however, refused to confirm a press report that North Korea fired three missiles.
The latest tests came as UN inspectors prepared to visit a reactor at the heart of North Korea's nuclear programme in their first on-site inspection there in nearly five years.
US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe urged North Korea to refrain from conducting “further provocative ballistic missile launches” which he said destabilise the security of Northeast Asia.
“The United States is deeply troubled that North Korea has decided to launch these missiles during a delicate time in the six-party talks,” he said.
Johndroe said the launches violated a UN resolution prohibiting the isolated nation from taking such action.
In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a tough international response to the tests.
“North Korea must respond to the concerns of the international community. It should make more effort to improve people's lives rather than to fire missiles,” Abe said.
China gave a muted response to the tests, calling only for continued efforts to push forward the six-party process aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
North Kora's missile launches have heightened tensions in the region in the past decade. In 1998 North Korea sparked alarm in Japan by test-firing a long-range missile over that country.
Wednesday's launches were the North's third missile tests this year.
In July last year it test-fired seven missiles, including the Taepodong-2, which in theory could reach the US west coast. Those launches brought UN condemnation and missile-related sanctions.
Some analysts in Seoul say the North, after staging its first nuclear test last October, might be preparing the ground for another long-range missile test.
