"As we have continued to point out, North Korea's missile program and activities are a threat not only to the region, but the international community at large," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

The United States, he said, "call upon North Korea to abide by the moratorium concerning missile tests."

Pyongyang carried out the missile tests at around 9:00 am (0000 GMT) and at noon (0300 GMT) on Wednesday, Japan's Nippon Television Network said, quoting officials of the Japanese Defence Agency and public security authorities.

The ground-to-ground missiles with a range of five kilometers (3.1 miles) landed in North Korean territory, the television network said.

North Korea stunned the world by launching a missile over Japan in 1998, prompting Tokyo to send up a spy satellite and take other security measures.

Japan teamed up with the United States to develop a missile shield after the 1998 launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il promised to keep a moratorium on test launches of ballistic missiles in place "in and after 2003" when he met Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in September 2002, reports had indicated.

In an indication that the United States wanted to thwart North Korea's missile threat, McCormack said Washington was "working with our friends and allies in the region on deployment of active missile defenses.

"We have cooperative relationships with a number of countries around the world on missile defense, and that would also include in the northeast Asia region," he said.

The North Korean missile tests came amid an impasse in six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive.

The talks among the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, Japan and host China have been stalled since November following financial sanctions imposed by Washington on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering activities.

McCormack said Wednesday that the United States believed that the six-party talks remained "the best way" to deal with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"It is also a forum in which issues of missile proliferation and missile technology can also be addressed," he said.

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