North Korea fires more projectiles as nuclear talks stall

North Korea fired two projectiles, believed to be short-range ballistic missiles, into the East Sea on Tuesday morning, while denouncing the US and South Korea for joint military drills that Pyongyang warns could derail fragile nuclear talks.

The weapons test was North Korea’s fourth in two weeks as the country grows increasingly frustrated at the stalled diplomacy over its nuclear weapons programme and the lifting of sanctions, and in response to joint military exercises that it considers to be a rehearsal for invasion.

The North’s foreign ministry statement said the drills leave the country "compelled to develop, test and deploy the powerful physical means essential for national defense."

Pyongyang also specifically rebuked South Korea for acquiring F-35A stealth fighter aircraft, and admonished Washington for stationing a nuclear submarine in South Korea port of Busan and trying to high-altitude reconnaissance drones to Seoul.

The moves showed that the two allies “remain unchanged in their position to continue to face us as an enemy,” claimed Pyongyang.

However, the statement from an unidentified spokesperson said North Korea remains committed to dialogue, but it could seek a "new road" if the allies don't change their positions.

South Korea’s presidential office, the Cheong Wa Dae, held an emergency meeting to discuss the launch, said spokesperson Ko Min-jung.

"Related ministers took the current situations with severity and agreed to strengthen the thorough vigilance and preparation posture, keeping a close eye on relevant situations under close coordination between South Korea and the U.S.," she added, according to Yonhap.

South Korea’s military said the two projectiles were fired at 5:24 am and 5:36am from North Korea's southwestern county of Kwail in South Hwanghae Province.

They flew around 450 kilometers across the peninsula before splashing into the East Sea, with a  maximum altitude of about 37 km.

"South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe that these short-range missiles bear similar flight features to the ballistic missiles North Korea test-fired on July 25," the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, adding that analysis is underway to determine their exact type.

If the test turned out to be a depressed trajectory KN-23 short-range ballistic missile, it would be “an additional nightmare for missile defences,” suggested Vipin Narang, a security studies professor at MIT. “Which is precisely Kim’s goal,” he added on Twitter.

The North last week conducted two test-firings of what it described as a new rocket artillery system and carried out a short-range ballistic missile launch on July 25, which it described as a "solemn warning" to South Korea over its plans to continue military drills with the United States.

The drills began on Monday but are expected to be computer simulated and not involve actual combat troops and equipment.

Experts say the North's weapons display could intensify in the coming months if progress isn't made on the nuclear talks that collapsed after the failure of Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, the US president, to reach a deal at a summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February.

Meanwhile, a report by the United Nations that revealed North Korea has generated an estimated $2 billion for its weapons of mass destruction programmes, is likely to raise tensions further.

According to the confidential report seen by Reuters, Pyongyang has used “widespread and increasingly sophisticated” cyber attacks to steal from banks and cryptocurrency exchanges, and has “continued to enhance its nuclear and missiles programmes.”

The North's latest launches come amid an escalating diplomatic row between South Korea and Japan over World War II reparations.

On Monday, Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, made a nationalistic call for economic cooperation between the Koreas while denouncing Japan's imposition of trade curbs on the South.

But his insistence that a "peace economy" by the Koreas would be able to erase Japan's comparative economic superiority prompted an angry reaction from conservatives, who accused him of ignoring the North's tests of short-range weapons that experts say pose a serious threat to the South's security.