North Korea says no face-to-face dialogue with South Korea

“South Korea is deluding (itself) that the dialogue will come naturally,” said the spokesperson for the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, KCNA reported early Friday.

The KCNA report also came the same day South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told CNN that North Korea launched two more unidentified projectiles off its eastern coast of Tongchon county in Gangwon province. It is the latest in series of North Korean launches.

North Korea’s announcement that it rejected any face-to-face talks with South Korea came after Moon, in a nationally televised Liberation Day address, said the momentum for dialogue between the Koreas and the United States “remains unshaken” despite North Korea’s recent missile launches.

Moon also said South Korea has defense capabilities stronger than those of North Korea, and that Seoul was monitoring the situation with Pyongyang and was trying to prevent the escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula.