DPRK fires 4 short-range missiles

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South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reports the Democratic People's Republic of Korea fired four short-range missiles off its east coast on Thursday evening.

This undated handout photo released by the Korean Central News Agency in January 2009 shows a missile-firing drill at an undisclosed location in DPRK.(AFP/KCNA/KNS/File)

It has been speculated that the move could be a possible prelude to the launch of a long-range missile toward Hawaii around the Independence Day in the US, on July 4th.

South Korean defense ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae says the firing came just hours after the DPRK ended talks with South Korea without progress over their joint industrial park in the DPRK border city of Kaesong.

The firing is the first military action Pyongyang has taken since the UN Security Council passed a resolution bolstering sanctions on the DPRK after its May 25th nuclear test.

A Pentagon spokesman says the United States remains concerned about the DPRK's missile and nuclear programs, but called Thursday's launches "not unexpected".

Meanwhile, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura say a long-range missile launch by the DPRK this weekend is possible. In Hawaii, missile defenses have been beefed up.

Those precautionary measures began after a mid-June report in a Japanese newspaper suggested that Pyongyang might fire a long-range missile toward the Hawaiian islands in early July.