South Korea: North Korea launched two ballistic missiles

Seoul: North Korea's missile launch early Wednesday was of two ballistic missiles, South Korea's military said.

The two missiles "flew around 250 kilometres at an altitude of 30 kilometres before falling into the East Sea", also known as the Sea of Japan, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.

There was no immediate statement from the nuclear-armed North on the launch, which came six days after leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised the firing of two missiles despite a meeting with US President Donald Trump last month.

Pyongyang and Washington are engaged in a long-running diplomatic process over the North's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes that has seen three high-profile meetings between their leaders in the space of a year.

The North has defied years of isolation and sanctions to develop its arsenal and has not given up any of its weapons, while proving itself adept at dragging out negotiations.

Kim and Trump agreed to resume nuclear talks during their impromptu June encounter in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, but that working-level dialogue has yet to begin.

Pyongyang has warned the talks could be derailed by Washington and Seoul's refusal to scrap the annual manoeuvres between their forces.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not address the launch but said talks would "start before too long," without giving details.

The latest launch was a warning to the two security allies to stop the exercises "or we will continue to show off our own offensive military capabilities and raise tensions to a slow boil over time", said Harry Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest in Washington.

Pyongyang will carry out more launches before the drills begin in August and again afterwards, he predicted.

"The only question is would the Kim regime dare test an ICBM (Intercontinental ballistic missile), or a long-range missile, that could hit the US homeland?"

Pyongyang said last Thursday's launches were of newly designed "tactical guided weapons" that were a "solemn warning to the South Korean warmongers" over the planned military drills with the US.

250km
The distance the two missiles flew

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