North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, Japanese and US officials say – the first such test since Joe Biden became US president.
Pyongyang is banned from carrying out ballistic missile tests under UN Security Council resolutions.
Japan said no debris had fallen within its territorial waters.
It comes just days after North Korea fired two non-ballistic cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea.
Testing cruise missiles is not banned, but ballistic missiles are considered threatening weapons.
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday that the tests posed a threat to security and peace in the region, Reuters news agency reported.
A statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff initially reported the launch of two “unidentified projectile”.
The tests come as the Biden administration continues to attempt to make contact with North Korea.
The current focus of the new White House team and its allies is the impending review on North Korea policy.
Decades of sanctions and three summits between former US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have failed to prevent Pyongyang from developing a larger and more deadly nuclear arsenal. -BBC
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