N Korea defends missile launches

North Korea yesterday defended its recent flurry of missile tests as a legitimate counter to US military threats.

The reclusive communist country has conducted six sanctions-busting launches in less than two weeks, the latest coming Thursday with the firing of a pair of ballistic missiles. On Tuesday, it fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan, prompting an alert for people in affected areas underneath to take cover.

"The missile test launch by the DPRK is a regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country's security and the regional peace from the US direct military threats that have lasted for more than half a century," North Korea's civil aviation agency said, without specifying which launch, according to state-run news agency KCNA.

Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have ramped up joint military drills in recent weeks, and carried out more exercises Thursday and yesterday involving a US Navy destroyer from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier's strike group.

The launches are part of a record year of weapons tests by isolated North Korea, which leader Kim Jong Un has declared an "irreversible" nuclear power, effectively ending the possibility of denuclearisation talks.

North Korea yesterday released a separate statement, saying it was "seriously approaching the extremely worrisome development of the present situation", referring to the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan being part of the US-South Korea military drills this week.