South Korea: North fires warning missiles into sea again

North Korea has test fired seven short-range missiles into the sea, South Korea said Friday, in its latest launch of missiles during joint military drills between South Korea and the United States.

A South Korean defense ministry official, who could not be identified because of official policy, said the surface-to-air missiles launched from North Korean western coast late Thursday flew into waters off the eastern coast.

North Korea regularly conducts such test firings of missiles, rockets and artillery, and they are often timed to express the country's dissatisfaction with actions by the United States and South Korea.

The latest launch came as South Korea and the U.S. conduct the annual drills that Pyongyang calls an invasion rehearsal. Seoul and Washington say the drills are for defense.

North Korea fired two short-range missiles on the first day of the drills earlier this month and warned of "merciless" strikes against South Korea and the U.S. The military exercises will continue until late April.

During the 2013 drills, tension rose amid North Korean rhetoric that included vows of nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul.

orth Korea last year conducted an unusually large number of missile and other weapons tests, drawing protests from South Korea. The North still proposed a set of measures that it said would lower tensions, but South Korea rebuffed them, saying the North must first take steps toward nuclear disarmament.

The United Nations has imposed sanctions banning North Korea from launching longer-range ballistic missiles but not short-range missiles.

The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Wire services