Seoul (AFP)

Pyongyang fired on Saturday two new missiles that could be short-range missiles, shortly after claiming to be the biggest "threat" to the United States, calling the passage of "toxin" Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

In recent weeks, North Korea has increased its weapons tests to protest US-South Korean military maneuvers, which it considers to be the repetition of an invasion of its territory. The last test went back to Tuesday.

"The army has detected two unidentified projectiles suspected to be short-range ballistic missiles," the South Korean Joint Staff said in a statement on Saturday.

The missiles traveled about 380 kilometers and reached an altitude of 97 km at a maximum speed of Mach 6.5 before crashing into the Sea of ​​Japan, known in Korea as the East Sea.

"Our troops are following the movements of the North in case of an additional launch, and are ready for any eventuality," the South Korean staff added in a statement.

The South Korean presidency gathered its National Security Council (NSC) following these weapons tests and expressed its "deep concern" in a statement, observing that these firing occurred while the joint maneuvers between Washington and Seoul were finished.

- Tensions between Seoul and Tokyo -

"The NSC members have decided to continue diplomatic efforts to bring the North back to the negotiating table with the United States to achieve the goal of full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," the Council said.

Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya also told reporters that Tokyo believed that North Korea fired "ballistic missiles" in violation of UN resolutions.

"We can not ignore them, regardless of their size and distance traveled," he said.

The United States, for its part, monitors the situation, according to a senior US official.

"We are consulting closely with our Japanese and South Korean allies," he said.

These new shots come as relations between Tokyo and Seoul continue to deteriorate due to old disputes inherited from the Japanese colonial past in the Korean peninsula (1910-1945).

South Korea announced on Thursday that it would break a direct intelligence sharing agreement with Japan, concluded in 2016 under the auspices of Washington, in the context of the rise of North Korea's ballistic and nuclear programs. .

- "Hardest penalties" -

Seoul finally said it would continue this sharing of information with Japan will continue, but via the United States.

Bilateral talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled since the failure of the second summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February.

The two leaders met again in June at the border in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which has separated the two states since the end of the Korean War (1950-53).

The meeting resulted in the decision to restart discussions on the Pyongyang nuclear program, just over a year after Singapore's first Trump-Kim summit. However, these discussions have not yet resumed.

Visiting Seoul this week, US special envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said the US was "ready to start talks" as soon as they get "news" from Pyongyang .

But North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho warned on Friday that his country would remain "the biggest + threat for the United States for a long time."

He also cracked a frontal attack on Mr. Pompeo that he called "irreducible toxin".

The US foreign minister had previously stated in The Washington Examiner that if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un does not decide to denuclearize, the United States "will maintain the toughest sanctions in the world. history".

© 2019 AFP