North Korea fires 5 short-range missiles

North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, now apparently aiming for better ties with both the US and South Korea after a period of high tension over nuclear and missile tests earlier this year, told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao his government might return to stalled six-nation negotiations on its nuclear programme, depending on how one-on-one talks with the US go. Washington is considering talks with North Korea for its part to restart the six-party negotiations. Concurrently, North Korea tested five KN-02 surface-to-surface missiles from mobile launch pads yesterday. Was this a way of signalling interest in talks? Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said American efforts to resume the nuclear talks with North Korea will proceed despite the new tests.