North Korea Test-Fires Anti-Ship Missile

North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile off its east coast Monday as part of its annual military exercise, South Korean military officials said.

The Office of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to further identify the type of the missile, but said North Korea has fired the same type of missile two or three times this year.

“The land-to-ship missile North Korea test-fired today is seen as part of its annual exercise,” said a spokesman of the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The spokesman spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

The missile was test-fired amid a yearlong standoff over North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions.

The launch also came as President Bush met with leaders from 21 nations at the annual Asia-Pacific Cooperation forum in Bangkok, Thailand, where counterterrorism and the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea have dominated the agenda.

In Tokyo, Cabinet Office spokesman Yukinori Morita and the Defense Agency said the Japanese government had received an unconfirmed report about a land-to-ship missile being fired into the sea between North Korea and Japan around noon on Monday. But they said they hadn’t verified the information.

The missile would not have posed any immediate security threat to neighboring countries, a Japanese Defense Agency official said on condition of anonymity. He said the report indicated the missile had a range of about 60 miles. It was believed the firing would have been part of “routine training,” he said.

Monday’s launch would be the first missile test-fired by Pyongyang since a reported test in April.

North Korea test-fired two short-range, anti-ship missiles in late February and early March. In those tests, North Korea fired its missiles at targets about 70 miles off its east coast. Washington and South Korea have criticized the tests as attempts to force the United States into direct talks.

In April, U.S. officials said North Korea test-fired another short-range anti-ship missile off its west coast, in an apparent response to the launching of spy satellites by Tokyo to monitor the isolated communist nation days earlier. Japanese officials initially confirmed the firing, only to deny it hours later.

North Korea’s neighbors have grown increasingly wary of the North’s arsenal in recent years.

In 1998, North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. That missile, called Taepodong-1, can reach all of Japan, experts say.

North Korea is believed to be developing missiles that could reach parts of the mainland United States.

The nuclear standoff began in October 2002, when Washington said that North Korea admitted running a clandestine nuclear weapons program. North Korea denies making such an admission.