North Korea fired short-range missiles off coast

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired three short-rangemissiles off its west coast on Friday, the South's Yonhap newsagency cited government officials as saying, on a dayPyongyang's media also launched a tirade of abuse at PresidentLee Myung-bak.

"... it appears the firing of the missiles was part of aregular exercise to check the performance," Yonhap quoted anunnamed South Korean Defence Ministry as saying on Saturday.

A similar launch in March riled regional tensions and wasseen by analysts as a display of anger at Washington and Lee'snew conservative government in Seoul.

North Korea has more than 1,000 missiles, at least 800 ofthem ballistic, that can hit all of South Korea and most partsof Japan, experts have said. Its launches often coincide withperiods of political tension.

In Singapore on Saturday on the sidelines of a regionalsecurity meting, South Korean Defence Minister Lee Sang-heetold reporters he could neither confirm nor deny reports of themissile tests.

South Korea usually tries to downplay short-range missilelaunches as part of regular North Korean military drills.

North Korea on Friday unleashed a torrent of insults atPresident Lee, who took office in February on a promise to cutthe free flow of aid Pyongyang has seen under liberalpresidents who ruled for 10 years before.

Its communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun denounced theLee government's policy of linking aid to progress North Koreamakes in ending its nuclear weapons programmes in internationaldisarmament talks.

"(It) is a criminal move to cover up their true colours assycophantic traitors keen on confrontation with the North, stemthe trend of the times towards independent reunification andpeace and prosperity and reduce the inter-Korean relations to aplaything of outside forces," the paper said.

Experts said North Korea has developed an arsenal ofshort-range missiles capable of attacking the capital Seoul,South Korean bases near their heavily armed border and U.S.troops stationed in South Korea to support the country's army.

Over the past few days, the chief U.S. and South Koreanenvoys in six-country talks aimed at ending the North's nucleararms ambitions have met the North's chief envoy in Beijing.

North Korea missed an end of a 2007 deadline to provide afull accounting of its atomic arms programme as called for in asix-way deal. If it makes the declaration, the impoverishedstate can receive aid and be removed from a U.S. terrorismblacklist.

(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by David Fox)