Earlier in the day, the US, Japanese and South Korean militaries detected two launches of presumably Musudan medium-range ballistic missiles from North Korea’s eastern coast.
"The six-party talks are dead," Choe Son Hui, the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s deputy director for North American affairs and deputy chief nuclear envoy, said at the forum, Sputnik reported.
Tensions over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs escalated after Pyongyang said on January 6 that it had successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test and put a satellite into orbit on February 7. The moves violated UN Security Council resolutions, and prompted the United Nations as well as the United States to impose sanctions.