North Korea on Tuesday fired projectiles toward the sea, South Korea's military said, hours after Pyongyang said it is willing to hold working-level talks with the United States in late September.
Negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington have been gridlocked since a second summit between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in February ended without a deal.
North Korea twice launched "unidentified projectiles" Tuesday morning in an easterly direction from South Pyongan province, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
No further details were immediately available but these were the latest to be fired since July. Previous launches have been identified as short-range missiles.
Trump and Kim had agreed to restart working-level dialogue during an impromptu meeting at the Demilitarised Zone dividing the nuclear-armed North and South Korea in June, but those talks have yet to begin.
"We are willing to sit face-to-face with the US around late September at a time and place that we can agree on," Choe Son Hui, the North's vice foreign minister, said in a statement carried on Monday by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Choe's comment followed his warning in late August that North Korea's "expectations of dialogue with the US are gradually disappearing", after Pyongyang conducted weapons tests to protest joint US-South Korean military exercises.
Asked about the proposal for lower-level talks in September, Trump told reporters: "I have a very good relationship with Chairman Kim. I always say having meetings is a good thing. We'll see what happens."
The period suggested by North Korea would correspond with the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the South and North Korea. Source: Getty
In recent months, North Korea has carried out a slew of missile and rocket tests to protest military joint drills between the US and South Korea that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
Some experts said the North Korean weapons tests were also a demonstration of its expanding weapons arsenal aimed at boosting its leverage ahead of new talks with the US.
Most of the North Korean weapons tested in July and August have been short range.
This suggests that North Korea hasn't wanted to lift its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, which would certainly derail negotiations with Washington.
Trump has downplayed the latest North Korean weapons tests, saying the US never restricted short-range tests.
