seoul north korea fired two shortrange ballistic missiles into its eastern sea south koreas military said on tuesday adding to a recent streak in weapons testing that is apparently in protest of the us sending major naval assets to south korea in a show of force in its third round of launches since last week north korea fired the missiles just before midnight from an area near its capital pyongyang south koreas joint chiefs of staff said it said both missiles travelled around 400 kilometers 248 miles before landing in waters off the korean peninsulas eastern coast its statement called north koreas missile launches a grave provocation that threatens regional peace and stability the launches came hours after south koreas navy said a nuclearpropelled us submarine the uss annapolis arrived at a port on jeju island that underscored the allies efforts to boost the visibility of us strategic assets in the region to intimidate the north last week the uss kentucky became the first us nucleararmed submarine to come to south korea since the 1980s north korea reacted to its arrival by testfiring ballistic and cruise missiles last week in apparent demonstrations that it could make nuclear strikes on south korea and deployed us naval vessels also on monday the americanled un command said it has started a conversation with north korea about a us soldier who ran into the north last week across one of the worlds most heavily fortified borders andrew harrison a british lieutenant general who is deputy commander at the un command which oversees implementation of the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the korean war declined to comment about the state of the inquiry to north korea or say what the command knows about pvt travis kings condition i am in life an optimist and i remain optimistic harrison said during a news conference in seoul in washington state deptartment spokesman matthew miller said north korea had only acknowledged receiving the un message last week and had not provided any information or commented further since then there have been no new contacts since last week miller said adding that north korea also had not responded to messages sent by us civilian or military officials north korea has remained publicly silent about king who crossed the border during a tour of panmunjom while he was supposed to be heading to fort bliss texas following his release from prison in south korea on an assault conviction the us still has not been able to ascertain kings condition a senior administration official said monday in washington asked if us officials had a better understanding of whether king intended to defect the official said they still had no indication about what was going on in his mind that day the official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity analysts say north korea may wait weeks or even months to provide meaningful information about king to maximize leverage and add urgency to