Report: N. Korea may have tested missile

TOKYO -- North Korea may have test-launched a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan shortly before six-nation talks in Beijing on dismantling the isolated communist state's nuclear program, a Japanese news report said Saturday.

U.S. Defense Department officials told their Japanese counterparts and other Tokyo authorities about the test, the Kyodo News agency reported. Pentagon and Japanese officials could not immediately confirm the report.

The test took place in the first half of this week, the news agency said, citing several unidentified U.S. and Japanese sources.

The latest round of talks that began Wednesday in Beijing produced no breakthroughs, though diplomats portrayed the discussions as the most useful and substantive to date. The United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan, and Russia participated in the talks.


Details on the test launch are believed to be based on spy satellite images, Kyodo said.

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