North Korea test-fires missiles

by Dave Keating | March 28, 2008 at 01:11 am

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North Korea continues to make gestures indicating its displeasure with the tone of the new South Korean president, who seems to be taking a harder line toward his neighbor to the North.

North Korea test-fired several short-range missiles off its west coast today in a possible effort to show dissatisfaction toward the new South Korean government and lack of progress in nuclear disarmament talks.

The missile launches, reported by Yonhap news agency citing unidentified government officials, came a day after the government in Pyongyang expelled South Korean experts at a joint industrial zone just north of the shared border.

"This looks like typical measures on the part of the Kim Jong Il regime to exert pressure on South Korea and the U.S," said Joseph Cheng, a political scientist at the City University of Hong Kong. "They want to attract attention and highlight the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula."

South Korea, however, downplayed such concerns in a statement posted on a government website.