N Korea says Kim supervised weapons tests, criticizes Seoul

Seoul: North Korea said Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised test-firings of an unspecified new weapons system, which extended a streak of launches that are seen as an attempt to build leverage ahead of negotiations with the United States while driving a wedge between the US & South Korea.

The report by North Korean state media came hours after President Donald Trump said that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed a desire to meet again to start nuclear negotiations after the end of ongoing joint US-South Korea military exercises, and that he apologised for the flurry of recent short-range ballistic launches that rattled US allies in the region.

In a separate statement on Sunday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry blasted South Korea for continuing to host military drills with the United States, and said that future dialogue will be held strictly between Pyongyang and Washington and not between the Koreas.

South Korea's military said the North on Saturday fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles. It said they flew about 400 kilometers (248 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Kim expressed "great satisfaction" over the launches, which the North's official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said verified that the new weapons system is able to perform as designed. North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published several photos that showed Kim watching from an observation post and what appeared to be a missile soaring from a mobile launcher. KCNA didn't specify whether the weapons were ballistic missiles or rocket artillery, but said they were developed to suit the North's "terrain condition" and provide "advantageous tactical character different from existing weapons systems."