SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea fired a salvo of test missiles into its coastal waters Friday, flexing naval muscles as South Korea launched its most advanced destroyer ever, armed with a high-tech U.S. air defense system.
The moves came amid a continued standoff over implementing communist North Korea's promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program and just days before the divided Koreas are scheduled to hold high-level reconciliation talks in Seoul.
But reaction was muted -- unlike the response last July to the North's test of a long-range missile capable of hitting Japan and perhaps parts of the United States, or in October to the North's underground explosion of a nuclear weapon.
South Korea said Friday's missile test apparently was part of the North's annual military exercises and involved short-range missiles, adding that the firings were unlikely to derail next week's talks.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States viewed the test "as a routine exercise that they do from time to time."
U.S. criticism of the Pyongyang regime has been muted recently, reflecting the eagerness of American officials to make progress on the nuclear disarmament accord with the North that has been stalled by a financial dispute.
At least some of the missiles were fired off North Korea's eastern coast into the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the action "extremely regrettable." While saying the test was not a "serious" threat to Japan's national security, he said it undermined international trust in North Korea's reclusive government.
The test firing came as South Korea celebrated the launch of a new destroyer equipped with Aegis radar, a system that will greatly enhance the South's ability to locate, track and shoot down North Korean aircraft and missiles. South Korea is one of only five nations armed with the U.S. technology.
The 7,600-ton, KDX-III class destroyer set sail Friday afternoon from the southern port city of Ulsan. Its Aegis combat system is able to detect and trace about 1,000 targets and then attack 20 of them at the same time, South Korea's navy said in a statement.
South Korea and Japanese analysts said the missile test was most likely a response to the South's new ship.
"North Korea fired them as a warning to South Korea's deployment of its Aegis-equipped destroyer," said Toshimitsu Shigemura, a North Korea expert at Japan's Waseda University. "This shows North Korea, whose navy is rather small, is extremely alarmed."
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the test, but said it was still investigating how many missiles were fired and exactly what kind they were.
"The short-range missile launches are believed to be part of a routine exercise that North Korea has conducted annually on the east and the west coasts in the past," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified Unification Ministry official as saying the tests were unlikely to cause strains in relations.
"I understand that North Korea test fires short-range missiles every year. It's not likely to have any immediate effect on inter-Korean relations," such as the Cabinet level talks set for Seoul, the official was quoted as saying.
North Korea has agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program under an accord with the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, but has yet to takes steps to dismantle it.
