SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired five short-range missiles
off its east coast on Monday, news reports said, even as South
Korea proposed working-level talks with its communist neighbor.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified South
Korean government official, said the North test-fired two
short-range missiles on Monday morning and three others on Monday
afternoon from mobile launch pads.
Yonhap said the missiles were surface-to-surface KN-02 rockets
with a range of up to 75 miles (120 kilometers).
The reported launches were the first since the regime conducted
a barrage of seven ballistic missile tests in early July, and come
despite signs North Korea is reaching out to rival South Korea and
the United States after months of heightened tensions over its
missile and nuclear programs.
The South's conservative government has reciprocated by taking
more steps to engage more with the North, but shows no signs of
easing its pressure on the North to disarm.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Belfast
Monday that the American efforts to proceed with talks with North
Korea on its nuclear ambitions will proceed despite the new
tests.
"Our goal remains the same," she told reporters after a meeting
with Northern Irish business leaders. "Our consultations with our
partners and our allies continues unabated. It is unaffected by the
behavior of North Korea.'
Clinton was to fly later to Moscow to meet with Russian leaders
on a variety of issues, including nuclear reduction concerns.
Yonhap said the North has issued a no-sail zone in areas off the
country's east and west coasts Oct. 10-20 _ an apparent indication
the country could carry out more missile tests.
YTN television network carried a similar report to Yonhap,
saying the missiles were fired off from sites south of the
country's Musudan-ri missile site on its northeast coast.
South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence
Service _ the country's main spy agency _ said they could not
confirm the reports.
Earlier Monday, South Korea proposed working-level officials of
the two sides meet Wednesday discuss how to prevent floods in the
Imjin River running through their heavily armed border. The South
also proposed a separate meeting of Red Cross officials on Friday
to discuss reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean
War.
However, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said that
Seoul had no plan to resume high-level dialogue with the North.
Ties between the divided Koreas had been soured after
conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office early
last year with a pledge to get tough with Pyongyang's communist
government. Tension on the peninsula further heightened after the
North conducted a long-range rocket test in April and a second
nuclear test in May.
Pyongyang, however, has recently reached out to Seoul and
Washington. The regime toned down its threatening rhetoric,
released detained South Korean and American citizens and pledged to
resume key stalled joint projects with South Korea.
The Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, which
means that the two Koreas are still technically at war.
