North Korea appears to have lifted its highest combat alert and pulled out two mid-range missiles from the east coast in a move that defused tension after weeks of warlike threats, reports said Tuesday.

The Supreme Command of the North Korean People’s Army appears to have removed the No. 1 combat-ready posture around April 30, an anonymous senior government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap News. 

“We are not fully able to locate the two Musudan missiles that have been moved to somewhere else from the eastern shore,” the source said, adding that South Korean and U.S. intelligence was closely tracking them.

CNN earlier reported that the missiles were sent to a storage facility, citing a U.S. official.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry dismissed the report on the alert lifting as “groundless,” saying the North appears to be maintaining the posture.

Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok decline to comment on the alleged missile withdrawal. “Our military has consistently been tracking North Korean ballistic missiles that were deployed on the east coast,” he told a regular briefing.

Later in the day, presidents Park Geun-hye and Barack Obama during their first summit reaffirmed a united response to the bellicose regime’s saber-rattling while leaving the door open to dialogue.

The reports were seen as the latest signs of de-escalation of tension on the peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is seen to be focusing on the economy and the people’s livelihoods by visiting a brand-new community center and watching a football game, instead of inspecting front-line units and carrying out other military-related activity,

In late March, the young ruler placed its military and artillery units on top alert and strategic rocket forces on standby, threatening to strike South Korea, the U.S. mainland and its Pacific bases such as Hawaii and Guam.

The communist state then relocated to the east coast its transporter-erector-launchers for short- and mid-range missiles, which were believed to be technically ready for test-firing.

The measures came in retaliation for what Pyongyang called atomic war games of the allies -- joint military drills involving a nuclear submarine, bombers and stealth jets.

Despite the perceived change in the mood, tension may escalate again as Seoul and Washington are engaged in another round of annual military exercises until Friday with a nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class submarine,  two Aegis-equipped destroyers and P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft.

The North immediately slammed the drill, vowing to turn five South Korean border islands in the West Sea into a “sea of fire” if a single shell falls in its waters.

“They are intensifying the anti-North war drills with a reinforced nuclear force in a bid to ignite nuclear war at any cost,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The powerful political bureau of Pyongyang’s National Defense Committee demanded last weekend that Seoul first cease military provocations including the anti-submarine exercise if it wants to reactivate the Gaeseong factory park.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry rebuffed the claim, saying the program is defensive in nature and thus cannot be linked to the joint industrial complex.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)