South Korea: North Korea fires 5th projectile in 3 days into nearby waters

South Korea has accused its northern neighbor of firing a short-range projectile into its nearby waters for the fifth time in the past three days.

North Korea claimed its launches are simply drills aimed at bolstering its defenses against an attack from the United States and South Korea.

The Defense Ministry for the South couldn’t confirm the projectile was a missile or artillery, The Associated Press reported. Seoul experts are analyzing the situation now, AP said. But Pyongyang conducts short-range missile tests with some regularity, and the weekend launches have all the makings of a weapons test, AP said.

They come at a time of tensions among the United States and South Korea with North Korea. The West is angry with North Korea’s recent nuclear test, and with its jailing of an American citizen, Kenneth Bae, to 15 years of hard labor for supposed crimes against the government.

Diplomatic talks have recently started between the U.S. and South with North Korea. It’s too soon to tell how these five projectile launches will impact those talks, AP reported.