North Korea has fired a short-range missile towards the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, according to NHK, Japan's public broadcaster.
Reports of the missile, quoting a Japanese government source, came on Tuesday, as the US's top nuclear negotiator arrived in Tokyo for talks with his Japanese counterpart.
Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state, said in Japan that he hoped the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear arms programme would resume in early July.
He said: "I'm very hopeful we can get to the six-party talks of some kind in early July."
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On February 13, 2007, at six-nation talks in Beijing, North Korea agreed to:
Start shut down of main Yongbyon nuclear reactor facility within 60 days of deal
Allow UN nuclear inspectors entry for all monitoring and verification
Discuss list of all nuclear programmes and materials including plutonium extracted from fuel rods
Declare all nuclear programmes and disarmament of all existing nuclear facilities
Begin talks on normalising diplomatic ties with the US and Japan, and resume high-level talks with South Korea
In return US, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea promise initial shipment of 50,000 tonnes heavy fuel oil within initial phase
The five nations agreed to establish working groups for initial and full implementation of action plan
Additional aid up to the equivalent of 1m tonnes of heavy fuel oil to be delivered to North Korea upon compliance |
Hill also said that the parties involved would "have to pick up the pace if we're to get back on our timelines".
Deadline
North Korea missed a mid-April deadline to shut its Soviet-era reactor as part of a six-way deal struck in February.
The communist state said it would not move until about $25m of its funds, frozen in a Macau bank, were released and has boycotted talks on dismantling its nuclear program for over a year because of the dispute.
Last week, the money started making its way to North Korea through a route that will take it through banks in the US and Russia.
The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it will send a senior delegation later in June to agree on details for a return of its inspectors to monitor Pyongyang's promised nuclear reactor shutdown.
North Korean state media said on Saturday that a "working-level delegation" from the IAEA had been invited to discuss procedures for the monitoring of the reactor's shutdown.
North Korea plans to seal its Yongbyon reactor, located about 100km north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, in the second half of July, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.