SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range missiles off its western coast yesterday, while threatening to slow further the disablement of its nuclear weapons facilities if the United States continues to demand a fuller accounting of its nuclear activities.
South Korea played down the missile launches, saying they were part of the Communist state's routine military training. It did not give details about the type and number of rockets fired by the North.
But experts said Pyongyang was seeking to boost its bargaining leverage by escalating tensions at a time that negotiations with Washington over North Korea's nuclear program are not proceeding in its favor and South Korea is becoming less generous with economic aid.
North Korea's first and only nuclear test in October 2006 gave rise to international concern about its missile capabilities. But it is unknown whether the North has the technology to tip its missiles with nuclear warheads.
"We are closely monitoring the situation," South Korea's presidential spokesman, Lee Dong Kwan, said. "We believe North Korea too does not want a strain in inter-Korean relations."
The missile tests came amid rising North Korean anger at the policies of the new South Korean president, Lee Myung Bak, who says he will drastically cut economic aid if the North does not end its human rights abuses and declare all of its nuclear activities.
On Thursday, North Korea expressed its anger by expelling all 11 South Korean government officials from a jointly run factory park north of the border.
Undaunted, South Korea voted Thursday for a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution condemning human rights violations by the North Korean government. South Korea usually abstains from such a vote to avoid provoking the North.
"Neither the North nor President Lee wants to back down," said Kim Keun Sik, a political scientist at Kyungnam University in South Korea. "This test of will between South and North Korea, which is a stand-off between hard-liners, signals a chill in inter-Korean relations."
Experts said the timing and location of the missile launches were significant. The disputed western sea border is the most volatile section of the inter-Korean border. Tension rises there in spring when fishing boats from both sides bicker over rich crab grounds. The countries' two navies fought bloody skirmishes in June of 1999 and 2002.
Chances of a repeat of such a skirmish have increased since the missile tests yesterday, Kim said.
"By launching the missiles, North Korea wants to put pressure on South Korea and the United States," said Baek Seung Joo, an analyst at the state-funded Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.
While the North's military was firing its rockets, its Foreign Ministry issued a statement yesterday blaming the United States for an impasse in six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
The nuclear deadlock stems from what American officials call Pyongyang's failure to address their suspicions that North Korea pursued a uranium-enrichment program and transferred nuclear technology to Syria.
Yesterday, North Korea said it has "never dreamed" of doing either.
The comments dimmed Washington's hopes for an early resumption of the nuclear disarmament talks.
