People watch a news broadcast about North Korea's missile launch on Wednesday on a screen in Seoul Station. Photo by Yonhap SEOUL, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- North Korea launched several missiles toward the sea separating Korea and Japan on Wednesday morning, South Korea's military said, as Pyongyang continued a series of weapons tests and rejected dialogue with Washington under current U.S. policy. The launches were detected from the Sondok area on the North's east coast, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters. South Korean and U.S. authorities were conducting a detailed analysis to determine the missiles' specifications. The allies monitored preparations and detected and tracked the missiles immediately after launch, the JCS said. "Maintaining a robust combined defense posture, the South Korean military is keeping a close watch on various activities by North Korea and remains fully prepared and capable of responding overwhelmingly to any provocation," it added. The Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command said it was aware of the launches and was consulting closely with allies and partners. "Based on current assessments, this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies," the command said in a statement. The launches came as Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, dismissed prospects for talks with Washington unless it abandoned what she called its hostile policy. In a statement carried Wednesday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim described U.S. findings linking Pyongyang to a record $6.3 billion theft from cryptocurrency exchange Binance as an "extension of Washington's invariable hostile policy toward the DPRK." The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is North Korea's official name. "It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons who refuse to abandon their policy of confrontation while talking about dialogue," Kim said. "The choice for peace includes dialogue of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us," she added. Kim also criticized U.S.-South Korean military exercises, sanctions and Washington's calls for North Korea's denuclearization. Her remarks followed a statement Tuesday calling the cryptocurrency theft accusation a "grave political provocation." International experts say Pyongyang uses cryptocurrency theft and fraudulent overseas information technology work to generate revenue for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in meeting Kim Jong Un and said in August that he expected to meet the North Korean leader this year. North Korea has conducted a string of weapons tests in recent days, firing around a dozen short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area last Thursday and testing a cluster warhead for tactical ballistic missiles Saturday. On Tuesday, the North said it had tested what it called a "dispersal warhead" for a strategic cruise missile the previous day. Read More

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