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N.Korea test launches missiles in apparent response to Seoul's tougher stance

The North showed signs earlier this week it was preparing to test short-range missiles as part of routine training, Yonhap reported. The country declared a no-sailing zone off the coastal city of Nampo and placed a military boat equipped with anti-ship missiles on standby, according to the news agency.

The North regularly test fires missiles, and its long-range models are believed able to possibly reach as far as the western coast of the United States. The country conducted its first-and-only nuclear bomb test in October 2006, but it is not known to have a weapon design able to fit inside a missile warhead.

North Korea shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor and has taken steps to disable its main atomic facilities under a landmark disarmament-for-aid deal reached last year with the United States and other regional powers.

However, negotiations on further disarmament have hit an impasse over the North's pledge to give a full declaration of its nuclear programs.

North Korea has claimed it gave the U.S. a nuclear list in November, but Washington said the North never produced a "complete and correct" declaration that would address all its past atomic activity.

On Friday, the North blamed Washington for the deadlocked talks and warned it would slow ongoing disablement of its atomic facilities.

The North's Foreign Ministry said the country has done its best to clear U.S. suspicions that it pursued a uranium-based atomic bomb program and also transferred nuclear technology to Syria, but Washington has been sticking to its "wrong" claims.

Pyongyang has "never dreamed" of doing either, the ministry said in a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, "and these things will not happen in the future too."

"The United States is clinging to shabby magic to make us a criminal in order to save face," the North said. "If the United States keeps delaying the resolution of the nuclear issue ... it could gravely affect disablement of nuclear facilities."

Earlier this week during a visit to Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said at a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that "time and patience is running out" at the nuclear talks.

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	A South Korean man in a traditional dress walks by displays of North Korea's Scud-B missile, center in green, and other South Korean missiles at Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 28, 2008. North Korea has test-fired several short-range missiles off its western coast, a news report said Friday. (AP) More Photos (4)


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