North Korea fires missiles into sea hours after US submarine arrives in the South

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North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, adding to a recent streak of weapons testing that is apparently in protest against the US sending naval assets to South Korea.

In its third round of launches since last week, North Korea fired the missiles from an area near its capital, Pyongyang, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said early on Tuesday local time. It said the missiles travelled about 250 miles (400km) before landing in waters off the Korean peninsula’s eastern coast.

Japan’s coastguard urged vessels in affected areas to watch out for falling debris, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The South Korean joint chiefs of staff condemned North Korea’s missile launches as a “grave provocation” that threatened regional peace and stability, and said the South Korean and US militaries were working together to tighten their monitoring of North Korean military activities.

The launches came hours after South Korea’s navy said a nuclear-propelled US submarine, the USS Annapolis, had arrived at a port on Jeju Island. That underscored the allies’ efforts to boost the visibility of US strategic assets in the region to intimidate the North.

Last week, the USS Kentucky became the first US nuclear-armed submarine to come to South Korea since the 1980s. North Korea reacted to its arrival by test-firing ballistic and cruise missiles in apparent demonstrations that it could make nuclear strikes against South Korea and US naval vessels deployed in the area.

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On Monday, the US-led UN Command said it had started a conversation with North Korea about a US soldier who ran into the country last week across one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders.

Lt Gen Andrew Harrison, a British officer who is the deputy commander at the UN Command, refused to say when the conversation started and whether the North Koreans responded constructively, citing the sensitivity of the discussions. He also declined to detail what the command knew about Pte Travis King’s condition.

“None of us know where this is going to end,” Harrison said during a news conference in Seoul. “I am in life an optimist, and I remain optimistic. But again, I will leave it at that.”