Report: North Korea tests missiles off coast

North Korea has fired three short-range missiles into waters off its western coast in an apparent routine test, Yonhap news agency reported Saturday.

North Korea fired ship-to-ship missiles into the West Sea on Friday, Yonhap said, citing South Korean government officials it did not identify.

An official with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the report, citing intelligence matters. The Defense Ministry also said it could not confirm the report.

The reported firings came after the North launched missiles off the western coast in March in what South Korea’s government said at the time was a routine test firing.

North Korea, though impoverished, maintains a large military. The country has tested long-range missiles, and it conducted an underground nuclear test in 2006.

Relations between the two countries have been tense in recent months since new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February with a vow to take a tougher line on the communist North.

The North’s state-controlled media have lashed out at the pro-American Lee, calling him a “traitor,” and have escalated rhetoric against the South -- including threatening it with destruction.

South Korea is participating in international efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear program.

Yonhap said that two of the missiles appeared to have misfired. The projectiles appeared to be of a variety made in the former Soviet Union with a range of about 28 miles, Yonhap said.

The agency quoted an unidentified South Korean Defense Ministry official as saying the missile tests did not appear meant to provoke the South, since they were fired well away from contested waters off the western coast.

South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported that the North fired one missile from waters near the island of Cho off the North’s western coast at about noon local time Friday.

North and South Korea have clashed in the past over the delineation of their sea border in the West Sea. The area, a rich fishing ground, was the scene of two bloody naval skirmishes between in 1999 and 2002.

The two sides fought the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, which means they are still technically at war.

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Associated Press Writer Jae-Soon Chang contributed to this report.