NKorea launches missiles off its coast
Saturday, 9 June 2007
SEOUL, Jun 8 (AP): North Korea fired two short-range missiles into its coastal waters Thursday, apparently as part of regular military drills, South Korean military officials said amid a stalemate in international talks on the communist country's nuclear weapons.
The missiles, fired into the waters off the North's western coast, were believed to have a range of around 62 miles, an official at South Korea's Defense Ministry said Friday.
A top South Korean official said that the missile test was part of routine drills, and will not heighten tensions in the region, which is already struggling to deal with the communist nation's nuclear weapons ambitions.
The launches "were a routine missile test (North Korea) conducts every year," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters. "I do not believe it will increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The North has in the past used such actions to signal its impatience with the international community and to ensure that it gets the attention it feels it deserves.
The missiles, however, demonstrated no new threat from the North, and were unlikely to ratchet up regional tension. The country's arsenal includes a variety of missiles, some of which are believed able to reach parts of the United States.
The US condemned the launches.
"The United States and our allies believe that North Korea should refrain from testing missiles," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, accompanying President Bush to the G-8 summit in Germany.
Johndroe said the North "should focus on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and fulfill its obligations" under a February agreement to shut down its sole nuclear reactor, which generates plutonium for atomic bombs.
The missiles, fired into the waters off the North's western coast, were believed to have a range of around 62 miles, an official at South Korea's Defense Ministry said Friday.
A top South Korean official said that the missile test was part of routine drills, and will not heighten tensions in the region, which is already struggling to deal with the communist nation's nuclear weapons ambitions.
The launches "were a routine missile test (North Korea) conducts every year," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters. "I do not believe it will increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."
The North has in the past used such actions to signal its impatience with the international community and to ensure that it gets the attention it feels it deserves.
The missiles, however, demonstrated no new threat from the North, and were unlikely to ratchet up regional tension. The country's arsenal includes a variety of missiles, some of which are believed able to reach parts of the United States.
The US condemned the launches.
"The United States and our allies believe that North Korea should refrain from testing missiles," said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, accompanying President Bush to the G-8 summit in Germany.
Johndroe said the North "should focus on the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and fulfill its obligations" under a February agreement to shut down its sole nuclear reactor, which generates plutonium for atomic bombs.