Skies look quiet to the north
North Korea showed no signs of preparing to launch additional missiles a day after the communist nation test-fired a barrage of short-range weapons into the sea, South Korea’s military said.
Friday’s actions came in apparent response to the new South Korean government’s tougher stance on Pyongyang.
“So far, there are no more unusual moves with regard to that,” an official of the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said of the possibility of more missiles being fired.
He spoke on customary condition of anonymity citing office policy.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who took office last month, has said he would take a harder policy line on the North -- a change from a decade of liberal Seoul governments that avoided confrontation to maintain a “sunshine policy” of engagement.
His government downplayed Friday’s tests as part of routine training.
The North launched three ship-to-ship missiles in the waters off the peninsula’s west coast around 10:30 a.m., according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The next day, the newspaper Chosun Ilbo said the missiles flew about 12 miles and fell harmlessly into the sea.
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