NORTH Korea has launched a number of projectiles off its east coast that are believed to be land-to-sea missiles in the latest provocation by the rogue nation.

With military tension on the Korean peninsula almost at boiling point, the South Korean military said today the North had launched the “surface-to-ship” missiles.

They were test-fired near the eastern port city of Wonsan in the Kangwon Peninsula.

The missiles flew around 200km, with an apogee of around 2km.

It was not clear how many missiles were fired.

The South Korean military immediately reported the launches to President Moon Jae-in.

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The North’s projectiles were fired into waters between South Korea and Japan where U.S. aircraft carriers USS Carl Vinson and USS Ronald Reagan participated in joint exercises with the South Korean navy that ended earlier this week.

The Japanese government also confirmed that multiple missiles were fired.

But Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that Tokyo had not detected any “flying objects” that headed toward Japan or landed inside the country’s maritime economic zone.

The UN Security Council last Friday unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution imposing new targeted sanctions on a handful of North Korean officials and entities, in response to a series of ballistic missile tests this year that are banned under UN resolutions.

However, North Korea on Sunday slammed the latest UN sanctions as “mean” and vowed to press ahead with its missile and nuclear weapons programs.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies told AFP: “North Korea has been stepping up missile tests ... in order to project an image to the world that international sanctions can never bring it to its knees.

“It is also expressing displeasure of the arrival of a US nuclear submarine in South Korea”.

The 6,900-ton USS Cheyenne, whose home port is Pearl Harbor, arrived in the South Korea port of Busan Tuesday.

It is the fourth missile test by the nuclear-armed regime in less than five weeks, as Pyongyang continues to defy UN warnings and US threats of possible military action.

The move came after CNN reported the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester said the US now has the ability to shoot down Intercontinetal Ballistic Missiles.

It is believed the North is working towards acquiring an ICBM.

Last week, North Korea fired a short-range missile ballistic missile that landed in Japan’s maritime economic zone, prompting protest from both Tokyo and Seoul.

North Korea’s weapons tests are meant to build a nuclear and missile program that can stand up to what it sees as U.S. and South Korean hostility, but they are also considered by outside analysts as ways to make its political demands clear to leaders in Washington and Seoul.

These demands include the removal of nearly 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea meant to check North Korean aggression.

TRUMP MOVE INFURIATES NORTH KOREA

Earlier North Korea blasted the ‘selfish’ US for ‘posing a great danger’ in a move that extends well beyond military tensions between the two nations.

US President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement has infuriated the hermit nation, with Pyongyang hitting out at what it says is an “unreasonable and reckless” act.

In a statement, Pyongyang said President Trump’s move to turn his back on the climate agreement represented “the height of egoism and moral vacuum seeking only their own well-being, even at the cost of the entire planet.”

North Korea is a signatory to the Paris agreement.

The statement attributed to the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and put out by state news agency KCNA continued: “The selfish act of the US does not only have grave consequences for the international efforts to protect the environment, but poses great danger to other areas as well”.

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MISSILE SYSTEM SUSPENDED

South Korea will suspend any further deployment of a controversial US missile defence system until an environmental impact assessment ordered by new President Moon Jae-In is finished, his office said.

Seoul agreed under Moon’s ousted predecessor Park Geun-Hye last year to deploy the powerful missile intercept system to guard against threats from nuclear-armed North Korea despite angry opposition from Beijing, which views it as a threat to its own military capabilities.

Two missile launchers have been deployed in the southern county of Seongju, where hundreds of residents have staged fierce protests over what they see as potential environmental hazards posed by the batteries used in the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.

There is “no need to withdraw” the two launchers that have already been deployed, a senior official at the South’s presidential office told reporters.

However, “additional deployment (of THAAD) should be carried out only after the environmental impact assessment is over,” the official added.

“We do not view the deployment process as urgent enough to bypass the whole environmental impact assessment,” he said.

The deployment freeze comes two days after Moon ordered a “proper” probe into the potential environmental impact of the missile batteries in a bid to win greater public support for the project.

Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross said the US trusts South Korea’s official stance that the THAAD deployment was an alliance decision and would not be reversed.

“We will continue to work closely with the (Republic of Korea) government throughout this process,” he said.

Four more launchers recently arrived in the South and are currently being stored at a US army base in the country, which plays host to some 28,500 US troops as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The South’s army came under fire this week after Moon -- who voiced ambivalence about THAAD on the campaign trail -- accused it of withholding key information about the system’s progress.

Top military brass who briefed Moon’s national security adviser last month deliberately withheld information about the arrival of the four new launchers, according to Moon’s office.

A senior defence ministry official was removed from his position over the incident.

Defence Minister Han Min-Koo -- appointed by Park and widely expected to be replaced soon -- admitted the presence of the new launchers only when pressed by Moon in a phone conversation last week.

The South’s military cited a confidentiality agreement with the US military as a reason to hide the critical information from the South’s new commander-in-chief, according to a probe into senior army officials.

China -- the South’s biggest trading partner -- has in recent months taken a series of measures against South Korean businesses seen as economic retaliation for THAAD.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that Beijing was following South Korea’s domestic debate over THAAD.

“China’s position is very clear,” she said during a regular press briefing. “No matter what happens, we are firmly opposed to the deployment of the THAAD system by the US in the Republic of Korea.”