IP addresses are NOT logged in this forum so there's no point asking. Please note that this forum is full of homophobes, racists, lunatics, schizophrenics & absolute nut jobs with a smattering of geniuses, Chinese chauvinists, Moderate Muslims and last but not least a couple of "know-it-alls" constantly sprouting their dubious wisdom. If you believe that content generated by unsavory characters might cause you offense PLEASE LEAVE NOW! Sammyboy Admin and Staff are not responsible for your hurt feelings should you choose to read any of the content here. The OTHER forum is HERE so please stop asking.
A North Korean soldier stands guard on the banks of Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, May 20, 2013. REUTERS/Jacky Chen
By Chookyung Kim
SEOUL | Mon May 20, 2013 5:40am EDT
(Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Monday, making six launches in three days, and it condemned South Korea for criticizing what it said were its legitimate military drills.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said North Korea had fired one missile on Monday morning and a second one in the afternoon. Both were fired into the sea off North Korea's east coast, a ministry official said.
The launches come hard on the heels of more than two months of threats from North Korea that it would wage a nuclear war against South Korea and the United States if it were attacked.
The North condemned joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises, that ended in late April, as a rehearsal for an attack on its territory.
"We are conducting intense military exercises to strengthen our defense capacity," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the body that handles inter-Korean issues, as saying on Monday.
"Our military is conducting these exercises in order to cope with the mounting war measures from the U.S. and South Korea, which is the legitimate right of any sovereign country."
North Korea frequently fires short-range missiles, although the current spate of launches has drawn criticism from South Korea and the United States after the recent threats from the North.
Seoul on Monday condemned the launches for stoking tension in the region while Beijing, the North's sole major ally, called for restraint.
"These launches are its tactic of signaling to the world that the regime is willing to negotiate now, while at the same time saving face," Kim Yeon-su, a professor at Korea National Defense University in Seoul, which is part of the Defense Ministry, said of North Korea.
Kim said that North Korea had an arsenal of hundreds of short- and medium-range missiles.
There appears to be little prospect of talks between North Korea and the United States as Washington insists that Pyongyang needs to abandon its nuclear weapons program, something the isolated and impoverished state has said it will not do.
North Korean soldiers smoke on the banks of Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, May 20, 2013.
REUTERS/Jacky Chen
A visitor poses for a photo next to a display of mock South Korean U.S.-made Hawk surface-to-air missiles and a mock North Korean Russian-made Scud-B ballistic missile (C, in gray), at the Korean War Memorial Museum in Seoul May 20, 2013. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gestures to officials next to wife Ri Sol-ju (L) during a visit to the Pyongyang Myohyangsan Children's Camp, situated at the foot of Mt. Myohyang in North Phyongan Province, in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 20, 2013. REUTERS/KCNA
A North Korean soldier (C, bottom) patrols at a guard post as North Koreans work on a rice field at a North Korean village in this picture taken from a South Korean observation post, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul May 19, 2013. REUTERS/Park Chul-Jung/News1
A North Korean flag flutters on a tower at a North Korean village in this picture taken from a South Korean observation post, just south of the demilitarised zone
separating the two Koreas, in Paju, north of Seoul May 19, 2013. REUTERS/Gang Jin-hyong/Newsis
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) visits the "February 20 factory of the Korean People's Army" in this photo released
by North Korea's Central News Agency on May 17, 2013. REUTERS/KCNA
