YONHAP NEWS

(2nd LD) N. Korea test-fires missiles as talks with S. Korea go awry

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Thursday, officials in Seoul said, just hours after the communist state ended its talks with South Korea without progress over their joint industrial park, the fate of which remains in jeopardy.

   The missiles, which appeared to be surface-to-ship ones, "were fired into the East Sea," South Korean defense ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.

   "One was fired at 5:20 p.m. and the other at 6:00 p.m. from Sinsang-ni" near the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, he said.

   Other officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the missiles landed about 100 kilometers off the coast, where the North had imposed a June 25-July 10 maritime ban for a military drill.

   The firing is the first military action North Korea has taken since the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution bolstering sanctions on the communist state for its May 25 nuclear test.

   Under the resolution passed on June 13, North Korea is banned from developing and testing missiles and other weapons of mass destruction.

   It also comes as a North Korean freighter suspected of carrying such material has reportedly changed course after being tracked by a U.S. Navy destroyer.

   Within several days of the nuclear explosion in May, North Korea fired a string of short-range missiles off its east coast. The country is also believed to be preparing to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile from the west.

   Earlier Thursday, working-level talks between North and South Korea over their joint factory park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong ended without an agreement or a date for another round.

   The park is the last surviving cross-border venture born out of the first summit between South and North Korean leaders in 2000, housing over 100 South Korean firms employing 40,000 North Koreans.

   South Korean tourism projects in Kaesong were suspended last year amid fraying political ties between the two countries, which remain technically at war after their 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

   A South Korean worker accused of defaming the North Korean leadership and encouraging a local woman to defect remains detained while North Korea maintains its demand that South Korean firms raise monthly wages four-fold.

   North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, launched a long-range rocket that it alone claims carried a satellite into orbit on April 5.

   The U.S. and its allies believe it was a disguised form of a ballistic missile theoretically capable of hitting the western U.S.

   samkim@yna.co.kr
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