통일부 "北 연이은 군사행동, 내부결속 및 협상력 제고 차원"

Seoul claims that Pyeongyang is continuing military activities to gain leverage against South Korea and the U.S. in future negotiations.
Oh Jung-hee has more.
This year, North Korea has conducted six test-launches of short-range projectiles two in early May and four in the past two weeks.
Throughout the year, the regime's leader Kim Jong-un made 8 military-related visits... to guide training and weapons testing.
On Tuesday, Seoul's unification ministry laid out its assessment of Pyeongyang's continued military activities.
An unnamed senior official told reporters... that the North wants to reinforce unity among its people... and gain an upper hand in future negotiations.
A North Korea expert in Seoul agrees.
"One is to send a strong message to the United States that if United States wants to have the working-level meetings to get started, then United States would be better to lower the bar of expectation. It is to put additional pressure on Moon Jae-in government of South Korea to persuade Trump administration to lower the barrier of negotiation for North Korea in some ways."
The North's back-to-back military provocations come as Seoul and Washington start their joint military exercises this week.
On Tuesday, after firing as-yet unidentified projectiles, Pyeongyang's foreign ministry lashed out, saying it cannot help but test and deploy "powerful physical means" to protect itself from (quote)"aggresive war rehearsals."
The North has also condemned Seoul for introducing new weapons like F-35A stealth jets ,... saying that violates their comprehensive military agreement reached last year.
Since the Kim-Trump DMZ meeting on June 30th, the North has pressed Seoul to stay out of its nuclear talks with the U.S., but at the same time has urged the South to abide by the inter-Korean agreements.
"Seoul's unification ministry says... the North has controlled the tone of its messages using both state media and propaganda websites,... but when criticizing the Seoul-Washington military exercises, it has stepped up its denunciations by using official media like the Korean Central News Agency and Rodong Sinmun.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News."