copyright 2009, The Washington Post SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea fired five short-range missiles into the sea on Monday and declared a navigation ban in waters off its eastern and western coasts, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency. The launches occurred a week after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il suggested that his country would return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, if the North could first hold one-on-one talks with the United States to convert 'hostile relations' into 'peaceful ties.' North Korea, a leading manufacturer and supplier of missiles and missile parts for the developing world, periodically fires short- and medium-range missiles into waters off both its coasts as part of training exercises. It was not clear if Monday's launches were part of that routine. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, reacting to reports of the missile launches, said the United States and its allies were trying to demonstrate to North Korea that the international community would not accept its continuing nuclear program. 'Our goals remain the same. We intend to work toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,' Clinton told a news conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The missiles were launched into the Sea of Japan off North Korea's eastern coast, Yonhap said, quoting government sources. It said North Korea imposed a navigation ban from Oct. 10 to 20. Yonhap said the missiles were surface-to-surface KN-02 rockets with a range of up to 75 miles. The launches were the first since North fired seven short- and medium-range missiles on July 4. The South Korean government said it could not confirm the Yonhap report. North Korea incited international condemnation and was slapped with tough new U.N. sanctions early this year, after it launched a long-range ballistic missile, detonated a nuclear device and repeatedly threatened war against South Korea. The U.N. sanctions bar North Korea from launching long-range missiles but do not apply to short-range rockets. Since August, the isolated communist state seemed to have changed course, shifting from provocation to negotiation. It released two detained American journalists after a surprise visit to Pyongyang by former president Bill Clinton. It also reopened border traffic with South Korea and resumed reunions among families separated by the Korean War. In a meeting last week in Pyongyang with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Kim suggested that North Korea would come back to the nuclear arms talks that his government had angrily denounced earlier this year as a platform for regime change. Encouraged by that trip, Wen met in Beijing on Saturday with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and pressed for an early resumption of the six-year-old disarmament talks that involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. 'If we miss this opportunity, then we may have to make even more efforts further down the road,' said Wen, whose government is North Korea's main patron and closest ally. China promised last week to give North Korea additional aid. But leaders of Japan and South Korea were more cautious. They said North Korea would have to give up its nuclear weapons program as part of a 'grand bargain' that would, if Pyongyang's promises are verified, unlock large amounts of aid and economic investment. Such a grand bargain seems unlikely, at least in the short-term. North Korea said in a letter this month to the U.N. Security Council that dismantling its nuclear weapons is 'unthinkable even in a dream.' The letter said Pyongyang would not give up its nuclear weapons unless the United States completely disarms. With a large arsenal of short-, medium- and long-range rockets, North Korea has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from missile sales in recent decades, according to a 2006 report by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif. The center said the North has sold missiles to Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Missile experts say Iran's missile program is largely dependent on modified mid-range Nodong missiles manufactured by North Korea. Before Monday's missile launches, South Korea proposed low-level meetings with North Korea to discuss flood-control measures on a river that runs through their heavily fortified border. The South also proposed a meeting of Red Cross officials to work out details for more reunions among families separated since the 1950s by the Korean War. 