By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea fired five ballistic missiles into the sea between the Communist state and Japan on Saturday in a move that flouted a United Nations Security Council resolution and sent a message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day holiday.
After a nuclear test by North Korea on May 25, the Security Council adopted a resolution that, among other things, barred the country from testing ballistic missiles. North Korea sharpened its standoff with Washington on Saturday by following through on part of its earlier warnings that it would respond to the resolution and sanctions with more tests of its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
"The ballistic missile tests" were "provocations that clearly violated" the resolution, Moon Tae-young, a spokesman at the Foreign Ministry of South Korea, said in a statement.
He said the missile launches only strengthened the need for vigorous enforcement of the United Nations resolution, which also calls for economic and financial sanctions and a global embargo on arms trade with the North.
A statement from the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military was "fully ready to counter any North Korean threats and provocations based on strong South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture."
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura called the tests "a serious act of provocation against the security of neighboring countries, including Japan."
A South Korean military official, speaking on condition of anonymity citing government policy, said the missiles launched Saturday were believed to have flown 250 to 310 miles, indicating that they might be the North's Scud-type ballistic missiles. The South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted military sources as saying the missiles were either Scud or Rodong, a scaled-up North Korean version of the Scud.
All five missiles were fired between 8 a.m. and 2:50 p.m. from a base near Wonsan, a coastal city east of Pyongyang.
Although North Korea regularly tests its short-range cruise missiles, the tests of any of the North's estimated 1,000 ballistic missiles raise hackles among its neighbors, especially Japan and South Korea. With their ranges estimated at 180 to 310 miles, the North's Scud-B and Scud-C missiles can hit most of South Korea. The Rodong, which can fly 800 miles, targets Japan.
The North has a record of timing missile tests to coincide with the Fourth of July in the United States as a way of highlighting its military threats. Pyongyang fired off a barrage of missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2, on July 4, 2006. The Taepodong launching was a failure, with the projectile falling into the sea less than a minute after launch.
The United States is leading international efforts to enforce the United Nations resolution, with its top sanctions envoy visiting Beijing this week to enlist help from China, the North's main trading partner and ally. North Korea has often used missile tests to raise regional tensions and draw Washington to the negotiating table.
Speculation has been running high in South Korea and Japan that the North might launch more missiles in coming days. It had warned ships to stay away from its east coast through July 10.
South Korea believes that North Korea began deploying a new intermediate-range ballistic missile that can fly as far as 1,900 miles in July 2007. So far, it has never launched it. There is strong evidence that North Korea, Iran and Pakistan have been collaborating in their missile development, sharing test results, according to security experts.
By far the North's most ambitious missile project is the Taepodong-2, which it began developing in the 1990s but has never successfully launched. On April 5, North Korea launched a rocket in what was widely considered another test of the Taepodong-2, designed to be an intercontinental missile capable of carrying a warhead as far as the West Coast of the United States.
Attention has been focused on whether the North would attempt to launch another intercontinental missile, as it has said it would in the wake of the United Nations sanctions. But so far, spy satellites have not detected any signs of preparation for a Taepodong launching, South Korean officials said in recent days.
The United States chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, said Saturday that the American military was ready for any North Korean missile tests.
"Our ships and forces here are prepared for the tracking of the missiles and observing the activities that are going on," he said after meeting with Japanese military officials in Tokyo, according to The Associated Press.
An earlier version of this article misstated the date of an April rocket test by North Korea. It was April 5, not April 4.
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