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North Korea projectiles send message to south

South Koreans watch a breaking news report about North Korea's latest missile launch.

South Koreans watch a breaking news report about North Korea's latest missile launch. Photo: AAP

North Korea has launched at least two projectiles into the sea according to military sources, shortly after Pyongyang described South Korea’s president as “impudent” and vowed that inter-Korean talks are over.

The North has protested against joint military drills conducted by South Korea and the United States, which kicked off last week, calling them a rehearsal for war. It has fired several short-range missiles in recent weeks.

North Korea fired two more unidentified projectiles into the sea off its east coast on Friday morning, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The launches have complicated attempts to restart talks between US and North Korean negotiators over the future of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Those denuclearisation talks have been stalled despite a commitment to revive them made at a June 30 meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Earlier on Friday, Pyongyang rejected a vow by South Korean President Moon Jae-in a day earlier to pursue talks with the North and to bring about unification of the Koreas by 2045.

A North Korean spokesman repeated criticism that the joint US-South Korea drills were a sign of Seoul’s hostility against the North.

“We have nothing to talk any more with the South Korean authorities nor have any idea to sit with them again,” the North’s spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country said in a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

Moon and Kim have met three times since April last year, pledging peace and cooperation, but little progress has been made to improve dialogue and strengthen exchanges and cooperation.

The North’s spokesman described Moon as an “impudent guy” who is “overcome with fright”.

It was “senseless” to think that inter-Korean dialogue would resume once the military drills with the United States were over, he said.

The spokesman left open the possibility of talks with the United States.

Topics: North Korea
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