North Korea launches missiles amid denial of Binance hack allegations

North Korea launched multiple missiles from the Sondok area on its eastern coast toward the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported on Wednesday. The launches, the fourth such test in a month, were detected by South Korean authorities, who are reviewing the details alongside U.S. officials.

The missile tests came a day after Pyongyang denied responsibility for the theft of more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from the Binance exchange, dismissing the FBI’s claim that North Korean hackers were behind the hack as “a trite provocation.”

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the United States’ announcement was “an extension of Washington’s invariable hostile policy toward” North Korea and ruled out any dialogue with Washington until that policy changes.

“It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons,” Kim Yo Jong said. “The choice for peace includes dialogue, of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, who plans to meet Kim Jong Un later this year, reiterated the importance of maintaining a working relationship with North Korea, noting the country’s possession of 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons. The United States, South Korea and Japan have jointly called for the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula.

Analysts note that the recent series of weapons tests, which have included submarine-launched ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, attack drones and cluster-bomb equipped cruise missiles, appears aimed at increasing Pyongyang’s leverage in any future diplomatic negotiations.