North Korea reportedly fires short-range missiles

North Korea test-fired several short-range missiles off its western coast today, a news report said.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Ministry said they were checking into the report by Yonhap news agency, which cited an unidentified government official.

The reported launches came the same day North Korea blamed the United States for the deadlock in their nuclear negotiations, warning that the Americans’ attitude could “gravely” affect ongoing disablement of its atomic facilities.

They also occurred a day after South Korea withdrew officials from a joint industrial zone in the North at the Pyongyang government’s request.

The move was sparked by the North’s anger over the tougher policy stance taken by new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on the communist nation, a contrast from a decade of liberal Seoul governments.

North Korea regularly test-fires missiles, and its long-range models might be able to reach the U.S. West Coast.

Its Foreign Ministry said today that the country had done its best to resolve U.S. suspicions that it had pursued a uranium-based atomic bomb program and transferred nuclear technology to Syria but that Washington was sticking to its “wrong” claims.

“The United States is clinging to shabby magic to make us a criminal in order to save face,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“If the United States keeps delaying the resolution of the nuclear issue … it could gravely affect disablement of nuclear facilities,” it said.

The North agreed last year to shut down and disable its sole working nuclear reactor and other atomic facilities, and to fully declare all its nuclear programs by the end of 2007 in exchange for aid and political concessions. Talks on further steps have stalled as the U.S. accused Pyongyang of not giving a full account of its nuclear programs.