North Korea on Saturday released a photo that shows the projectiles it fired into the East Sea last Thursday were not short-range rockets from a multiple launcher but ballistic missiles. The North fired them on the day Pope Francis arrived in Seoul, in keeping with a long tradition of trying not to be forgotten when something noteworthy happens in South Korea.

But the North later claimed the firings were unrelated to the pope's visit. "We don't know and in fact have no interest at all in why he is traveling to South Korea and what he is going to plot with the South Korean puppets," the official [North] Korean Central News Agency quoted a rocket scientist as saying.

A military source here said on Sunday the image was released on the KCNA's overseas service website. "It's a close-up, unlike the long shot released the previous day, so that we can clearly identify the projectiles."