N. Korea missile tests could end

South Korea's military said yesterday there were no signs North Korea would again test-fire missiles, a day after it launched a barrage of short-range rockets and threatened to attack the South Korean Navy.

In the past few days, North Korea has also expelled South Korean officials from a joint factory park just north of the border and threatened to slow down a nuclear deal in what analysts said was a show of anger at the new conservative South Korean government and its ally the United States.

"We are not seeing any further signs of particular movements that would indicate additional missile launches. We suspect the situation is over after yesterday's launch" a public affairs official at the Defence Ministry said.

North Korea, which has a habit of test-launching missiles as a way to ratchet up political tensions, shot off ship-to-ship missiles into the Yellow Sea on Friday.

It also said if South Korean ships continued to patrol in disputed Yellow Sea waters, there could be a battle.

In Washington, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said missile testing was "not constructive" and should end.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's government, in office for a month, has told its touchy and destitute neighbour that if it wants to keep receiving aid, it should clean up its human rights, abide by an international nuclear deal and start returning the more than 1,000 South Koreans it kidnapped or has held since the 1950-53 Korean War.