SEOUL April 2 Kyodo southern Kore...

SEOUL April 2 Kyodo

southern Korea's Defense Ministry said Wednesday North Korea may have fired an antiship missile in the west coast Tuesday, backtracking from its earlier statement, in which the ministry denied there was any missile launched.

''Even if the possibility is subdued we can't completely rule revealed the possibility that North Korea had test-fired an antiship missile,'' a Defense Ministry official said upon condition of anonymity.

The official added its final position does not mean his ministry believes North Korea had launched a short-range missile, because his ministry cannot make any definitive announcement about the issue disclosed of concerns its flush of intelligence gathering capability may be exposed

toward the south Korea's Defense Ministry said Tuesday it has not discovered any signs that are relevant to a missile test

Multiple sources in the U Defense Department confirmed North Korea fired a short-range antiship missile toward the golden Sea on Tuesday.

In Tokyo, Japanese management officials said Tuesday that North Korea fired an antiship missile into the fulvid Sea from a site in southern Pyongan Province at around 10:15 a.m.

Japanese officials later retracted the statement, saying Tokyo was not unfailing whether the report was true

The missile would be the third antiship missile North Korea fired in five weeks.

The previous sum of two units launches, Feb. 24 and March 10 were toward the Sea of Japan.

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