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N. Korea test fires short-range missiles in Yellow Sea

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North Korea fired a number of short-range missiles off the western coast into the Yellow Sea, the Yonhap news agency said citing defense sources.
TOKYO, March 28 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea fired a number of short-range missiles off the western coast into the Yellow Sea, the Yonhap news agency said citing defense sources.

The source said three anti-ship missiles with a range of 46 kilometers (28 miles) had been fired as part of North Korean military exercises.

Yonhap cited South Korean presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan as saying: "The government regards North Korea's missile firing as merely a part of its ordinary military training."

There had been signs that Pyongyang was preparing a missile launch, a North Korean Naval vessel had been spotted and ships had been banned from the area since Tuesday, a military source was quoted as saying.

However, the timing of the missile firing comes just one day after 11 South Korean government officials were expelled from a joint industrial complex by Pyongyang in a sign that relations between the two countries have become strained.

Lee Myung-bak, the new South Korean president, has vowed to take a tough stance during negotiations with the North, and link further inter-Korean projects, including expansion of the South Korean-funded complex, to progress in international negotiations over North Korea's nuclear programs.

Around 20,000 North Koreans are currently employed at 69 South Korean manufacturing plants operating at the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

Under an agreement reached last October between the United States, Japan, Russia, China, and South and North Korea, Pyongyang was to halt its nuclear programs and provide full information on nuclear activities by the end of 2007 in exchange for economic and political concessions. The six-way negotiations stalled after the North missed the deadline.

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