North Korea has test fired several missiles and warned it may slow down work to disable atomic plants, raising the stakes in its nuclear disputes with South Korea and the United States.
The actions come a day after North Korea expelled South Korean officials from a joint industrial estate, in protest at the new conservative government's tougher policy towards Pyongyang.
A presidential spokesman described the missile launches as part of a regular military exercise.
A local news agency said three or four missiles were fired into the Yellow Sea. It said they were Russian-designed Styx ship-to-ship missiles with a range of 46kms.
There were several similar launches last summer.
After a decade-long ‘sunshine’ rapprochement policy under liberal presidents, the new Seoul administration is linking long-term economic aid to nuclear disarmament.
An international nuclear disarmament deal is currently deadlocked because of disputes between Washington and Pyongyang.
North Korea last year agreed to disable its main atomic plants at Yongbyon and declare all its nuclear programmes and materials by the end of 2007.
The US-supervised disablement has been going ahead but Washington and Pyongyang are at odds over the declaration.
The North says it submitted the declaration last November. The US says it has not fully accounted for a suspected uranium enrichment programme and for allegations of nuclear proliferation to Syria.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned that US delays in resolving the dispute could slow down work to disable its plutonium-producing atomic plants.
