North Korea, defiant in the face of international condemnation of its latest nuclear test, fired two more short-range missiles off its east coast on Tuesday, Reuters reported. On its part, South Korea said it would join a U.S.-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, something Pyongyang has warned it would consider a declaration of war. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government source in Seoul as saying the North had test-fired one surface-to-air and one surface-to-ship missile off its east coast. The missiles had a range of about 130 km (80 miles). North Korea fired off three short-range missiles on Monday. The nuclear test on Monday, the North's second after one in 2006, drew sharp rebuke from regional powers, and U.S. President Barack Obama called Pyongyang's nuclear arms programme a threat to international security. "The DPRK's nuclear test not only poses a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, and southeast Asia and beyond, but also represents a grave challenge to the international non-proliferation regime," South Korean disarmament ambassador Im Han-tauck told the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council condemned the nuclear test and is working on a new resolution. Interfax news agency in Moscow quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry source as saying the adoption of a tough resolution was probably unavoidable because the Security Council's authority was at stake.
