TOKYO – North Korea fired several short-range missiles Friday, but the United States and its Asian allies said the launches were part of normal military drills and would not affect talks on Pyongyang's nuclear arms program.
“It appears to be a routine exercise,” said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
The U.S. response to the report by Japan's NHK television that North Korea fired surface-to-ship missiles from its east and west coasts echoed that of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who downplayed the significance of the launches.
“I do not consider it as a grave issue for Japan's security,” Abe told reporters, adding that he wanted North Korea to adhere to the nuclear disarmament agreement struck in February at six-party talks.
The missile tests were described by South Korea's National Intelligence Service as part of an annual military drill.
Christopher Hill, the top U.S. envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue, said they were “not unusual.”
“These are short-range systems. They have fired them off before. It's something they have done on several occasions,” the assistant secretary of state told reporters in Manila, where he attended preparatory meetings this week for an August summit of Asia's largest security bloc.
“I don't think it will affect the six-party talks,” he said of nuclear negotiations among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The reaction contrasted with that of last July, when Pyongyang fired a salvo of long- and short-range missiles that drew U.N. sanctions. The North inspired more international punitive measures with an underground nuclear test in October.
Under a February deal reached at the talks, Pyongyang agreed to begin work to scrap its nuclear weapons program but has demanded formerly frozen funds in a Macau bank be transferred to North Korea first.
The $25 million at Banco Delta Asia was blocked after the United States blacklisted the bank, accusing it of laundering illicit North Korean funds.
SOFTER U.S. POSITION
Earlier Friday, Hill had said Washington was hopeful North Korea would meet a commitment to shut down its nuclear facilities this month after it receives the frozen funds.
“I do believe the DPRK (North Korea) continues to signal to us privately and publicly, and most recently last night, that as soon as the banking matter is resolved, they will move quickly to implement their part of the deal,” Hill said.
“I am expecting it very soon. I expected that last month and hopefully we can get that done this month,” said Hill.
Some analysts questioned why North Korea would take tough action in light of such U.S. comments.
“The United States has softened its stance, and therefore it's hard to understand why North Korea threatened with missile launches this time,” said Noriyuki Suzuki, chief analyst at the Tokyo-based Radiopress news agency, which specializes in monitoring North Korea media.
“It is not the time when North Korea should try to secure concessions,” he said.
South Korea, which earlier Friday launched its first destroyer equipped with the high-tech Aegis weapons system for shooting down enemy missiles and aircraft, downplayed the impact of the missile launch.
“The mood is this won't affect the six-party talks,” a South Korean foreign ministry official said.
However, Park Young-ho, a specialist at the South's Korea Institute for National Unification, said the incident could be a bit of saber rattling.
“We could think of this missile test as a way of North Korea showing off its missile capability,” Park said.
The South Korean destroyer, named King Sejong and built at a cost of about $1.07 billion, will be the country's most advanced ship to counter a possible attack from North Korea, which has hundreds of ballistic missiles.
Seoul plans to launch two more Aegis-equipped destroyers by 2013.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Teruaki Ueno and Chisa Fujioka in Tokyo, Jack Kim in Seoul, and Manny Mogato in Manila)
