Pyongyang reportedly escalates confrontation with international community after defiant nuclear test.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
North Korea launched tests Tuesday of two more short-range missiles a day after conducting a nuclear test, news reports said, pushing the regime's confrontation with world powers further despite the threat of UN Security Council action.
Two missiles - one ground-to-air, the other ground-to-ship - with a range of about 130 kilometers were test-fired Tuesday from an east coast launch pad, the Yonhap news agency and YTN television reported, citing unnamed South Korean officials.
South Korea's spy chief, Won Sei-hoon, had informed lawmakers earlier Tuesday that North Korea appeared to be preparing to test-fire more missiles, according to Park Young-sun, a legislator who attended the closed-door session.
Pyongyang also test-fired three short-range missiles Monday in the hours after conducting an underground nuclear test in the northeast, Yonhap said.
The Security Council called Monday's underground atomic test in northeastern North Korea a "clear violation" of a 2006 resolution banning the regime from developing its nuclear program and has begun working on a new resolution that could mean stronger sanctions.
France called for new sanctions while the US and Japan pushed for strong action against North Korea for testing a bomb that Russian officials said compares in power to those that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
North Korea had threatened in recent weeks to carry out a nuclear test and fire long-range missiles unless the Security Council apologized for condemning Pyongyang's April 5 launch of a rocket the US, Japan and other nations called a test of its long-range missile technology.