NKorea says weapons drill was defensive, criticizes Seoul

North Korea on Thursday described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile over the weekend as a regular and defensive military exercise and ridiculed South Korea for criticizing the launches.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency published a statement by an unnamed military spokesman who called South Korea's criticism a "cock-and-bull story," hours before senior defense officials from South Korea, United States and Japan met in Seoul to discuss the North Korean launches and other security issues.

A separate statement by a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman described the launches as a "routine and self-defensive military drill."