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SEOUL - North Korea has fired off another missile, the latest in a series since its nuclear test two days ago, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Wednesday.
The North fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) overnight, it quoted a Seoul government source as saying.
"Intelligence authorities are now closely monitoring the situation," the source said.
The communist state fired three short-range ground-to-air missiles from locations near its east coast on Monday, the same day it conducted an underground nuclear test that shocked the world.
It launched two more off its east coast on Tuesday, Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea's military says it does not comment on intelligence matters.
The missiles fired Monday and Tuesday were said to have a range of 130 kilometres.
Several times in recent years, the North has test-fired short-range missiles in either the Yellow Sea or the Sea of Japan. The exercises are often staged to coincide with periods of regional tension.
Separately, South Korea's largest newspaper Chosun Ilbo quoted an unnamed government source as saying that the North has resumed operations at an ageing facility that extracts bomb-grade plutonium.
Pyongyang said in April it had restarted the plutonium separation complex at its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant, which was being taken apart under a six-way disarmament-for-aid deal. There had been no signs yet that work had resumed there.
But on Wednesday, Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported: "There are various indications that reprocessing facilities in Yongbyon resumed operation that have been detected by US surveillance satellites, and these include steam coming out of the facility."
Officials could not immediately comment on the report.
- AFP/CNA/ir
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