N. Korea Fires Projectiles, Rules Out Talks With South

North Korea on Friday bluntly criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for continuing to hold military exercises with the US and over his rosy comments on inter-Korean diplomacy, and said Pyongyang has no current plans to talk with Seoul. The statement by an unidentified government spokesman came hours before South Korea's military detected two projectiles North Korea fired into the sea to extend a streak of weapons display that is apparently aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul over their joint drills and slow nuclear negotiations, the AP reports. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the projectiles launched from the North's eastern coast flew about 143 miles on an apogee of 18 miles before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Friday's launches were North Korea's sixth round of tests since late July.

The US and South Korean militaries were analyzing the launches but didn't immediately say whether the weapons were ballistic missiles or rocket artillery. The North has ignored South Korean calls for dialogue recently. Moon, in a televised speech on Thursday, said a momentum for dialogue remains alive despite the series of "worrying actions taken by North Korea recently." He called for Pyongyang to choose "economic prosperity over its nuclear program." A spokesperson for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country said Moon's comments would make a "boiled head of a cow (fall into) a side-splitting laughter." The statement said Pyongyang has "nothing" to talk about with South Korean authorities and has no plans "to sit with them again."

(More North Korea stories.)