SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The Latest on North Korea firing short-range missiles into the sea (all times local):
7:30 a.m.
North Korea says its recent weapons test was of a “new-type tactical guided weapon” and was meant as a “solemn warning” over South Korean weapons development and plans to hold military exercises.
The message Friday was carried on state media and released in the name of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It was directed to “South Korean military warmongers” and comes as U.S. and North Korean officials struggle to set up working level talks after a recent meeting on the Korean border between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to provide a breakthrough in stalled nuclear negotiations.
North Korea is infuriated over U.S.-South Korean plans to hold military drills that the North says are invasion rehearsals and proof of the allies’ hostility to Pyongyang.
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2:40 a.m.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is calling for the swift resumption of working-level talks between the United States and North Korea following Pyongyang’s latest ballistic missile launches.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq says Guterres is concerned by Thursday’s launches and wants a quick return to the talks that U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to in June at their meeting in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas.
Haq said the secretary-general has made clear “that he views those meetings as a hopeful development - and he’s hoped that that will lead to progress towards the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
South Korea says the two weapons North Korea fired on Thursday were a new type of ballistic missile.
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7:30 p.m.
South Korea says the two weapons North Korea fired on Thursday were a new type of ballistic missile.
South Korea’s presidential office issued the assessment after a national security council meeting.
Seoul said earlier based on analysis of the launches that one missile flew 690 kilometers (430 miles) and the other 430 kilometers (270 miles) before landing in the waters off the east coast.
The presidential office says national security council members expressed “strong concerns” about the launches because they won’t be helpful for an effort to ease military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
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2:20 p.m.
South Korea says one of the two North Korean missiles flew 690 kilometers (430 miles), longer than initially suspected.
South Korea earlier said both missiles flew about 430 kilometers (270 miles) before landing in the waters off the country’s east coast on Thursday.
South Korea’s military later said it and the United States had determined the second missile flew longer.
It says it still categorizes both missiles as short-range.
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10:25 a.m.
Japan’s Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya says North Korea’s missile test launches are probably a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Iwaya told reporters Japan is still analyzing what type of missiles North Korea fired into the sea early Thursday. South Korea’s military says they were two short-range missiles, leading some observers to suggest they were not a major provocation but rather the North’s warning of what may happen if the nuclear negotiations with the U.S. fail.
Iwaya says, “If they were ballistic missiles, they violate the U.N. sanctions, and I find it extremely regrettable.”
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10 a.m.
Japan’s Defense Ministry says it has not found any flying objects reaching the Japanese territory or its 200-mile exclusive economic zone from the North Korean launch of two short-range missiles.
The ministry has not detected signs that Thursday morning’s missile launches posed any immediate threat to Japan’s national security.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the missiles fired from around the North’s eastern coastal town of Wonsan flew about 430 kilometers (270 miles) before landing in the waters off the country’s east coast.
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7 a.m.
South Korea says North Korea has launched two identified projectiles into the sea off its east coast.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectile launch came from an area near the eastern city of Wonsan on Thursday.
It said the projectiles flew 430 kilometers.
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