Since last April Pyongyang has left six party talks and continued missile tests and its nuclear program. Seoul and Tokyo are concerned that North Korea is preparing an intercontinental missile.

Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - North Korea today launched a series of missiles in apparent contempt of UN sanctions that prohibit missile activities and as an act of open defiance of the United States, today being the 4th of July, Independence Day.

South Korea and Japan have called the test "an act of provocation."

According to some news agencies in Seoul, 6 missiles were launched today, 5 of them are Scuds and have a range of 500 km.  Earlier in the week North Korea launched 4 short-range missiles. Southern military sources say that the missiles were launched today from the North’s East coast and fell in the Sea of Japan.

The international community and especially Seoul and Tokyo are concerned that this missile activity is preparing the ground for intercontinental missile tests, and the preparation of nuclear warheads light enough to be loaded on a missile.

Since 2003, a dialogue of six (North and South Korea, U.S., China, Russia, Japan) has attempted to curb North Korea’s experiments and nuclear program in exchange for economic aid. But last April, North Korea rejected the talks, to continue its experiments.

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