SEOUL, June 7: North Korea on Thursday test-fired two short-range missiles, less than two weeks after its previous launch, the South Korean military said. The communist state fired two missiles into the Yellow Sea, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.

They are believed to be ground-to-ship or ship-to-ship missiles with a range of some 100 kilometres, he said. All landed in North Korean waters.

The spokesman said the launches were among the routine missile tests North Korea carries out every year. “We consider today's launch as part of routine military training, as was the May 25 launch.” The May launching into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) was the first such test in nearly a year. South Korea, Japan and the United States played down its significance, calling it part of normal military exercises.Japan said the latest tests were unlikely to pose an immediate threat and it had no plans to heighten its alert against North Korea, Jiji Press quoted a defence ministry official as saying.

But the tests come at a sensitive time as US and other negotiators are struggling to settle a banking row which is blocking a start to the North's promised nuclear disarmament.

US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe criticised the launches, in a comment from a G-8 summit.—AFP