The Democratic People's Republic of Korea fired about 10 unidentified ballistic missiles towards the East Sea on Saturday, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, days after Pyongyang warned of "terrible consequences" over the ongoing annual South Korea-US military drills.

Seoul's military detected "around 10 unidentified ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea at around 1.20pm," it said in a statement.

The ministry's announcement came hours after South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said that US President Donald Trump had told him that a meeting with Pyongyang's leader Kim Jong-un would be "good".

Washington has for decades led efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme, but summits, sanctions and diplomatic pressure have had little impact.

In recent months, the Trump administration has pushed to revive high-level talks with the DPRK, eyeing a possible summit with Kim Jong-un this year, potentially during Trump's April visit to Beijing.

Seoul's Kim, who met Trump in Washington, said the US president told him: "Meeting [Kim Jong-un] would be good" and "it could happen when we go to China this time, or it might not".

Trump said during a trip to Asia in October that he was "100 percent" open to meeting with Kim Jong-un, a remark that went unanswered.

After largely ignoring those overtures for months, Kim Jong-un recently said that the two nations could "get along" if Washington accepted Pyongyang's nuclear status. (AFP)



Edited by Thomas McAlinden