North Korea fired five short-range rockets into the sea off its east coast yesterday, just as Pope Francis arrived in Seoul for a five-day visit.

The launches began at 9.30am at a site near the North’s eastern port of Wonsan, with the rockets fired into the East Sea — also known as the Sea of Japan — at a maximum range of 220km, a South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman said. Three were fired in the morning and two in the afternoon, he said, adding the military had stepped up vigilance along the fortified border.

The Pope is expected to send a message of peace to Pyongyang when he conducts an inter-Korean “reconciliation” mass in Seoul next week.

Church officials in the South had asked Pyongyang to send a group of Catholics to attend the event, but the North declined, citing its anger at upcoming South Korea-US military drills.

The Catholic Church, like any other religion, is only ­allowed to operate in North Korea under tight restrictions, and within the confines of the state-controlled Korean Catholics Association.

Yesterday’s launches came hours after North Korea warned that if South Korea failed to cancel a military drill with the US it would push the two sides “to the brink of war”.

In a statement that offered no direct response to Seoul’s recent offer of high-level talks, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles cross-border ties, issued a long list of measures the South should implement if it was “sincere” about improving relations.

The joint military drill scheduled to begin on Monday “should be cancelled unconditionally”, the statement said.

The annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercise is aimed at testing combat readiness for a North Korean invasion.

North Korea has carried out a series of missile tests into the East Sea in recent months, despite UN resolutions barring it from any launches using ballistic missile technology.