The missile launches come four days after North and South Korea exchanged warning shots off the west coast.
North Korea has fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and national media said.
“The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said they detected the launches from the Tongchon area in Kangwon Province,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.
South Korea’s military is “maintaining a posture of full readiness in close cooperation with the United States,” the joint chief said in a text message to reporters, according to Yonhap.
No other details, including the flight range of the projectiles, were immediately available.
The Tongchon launch site is about 60 km (37 miles) from the inter-Korean border. The area was apparently closer to South Korean territory than any other launch site North Korea has used so far this year.
Friday’s launch also comes on the last day of South Korea’s 12-day annual “Hoguk” military exercises, which also involved an unspecified number of US troops this year.
Next week, South Korean and US forces are also preparing to hold large combined air drills, dubbed “Vigilant Storm,” Yonhap reported.
These military exercises infuriate Pyongyang, which sees them as rehearsals for invasion and justifies its barrage of missile launches as necessary “countermeasures”.
(PLOMO) North Korea fires 2 short-range ballistic missiles into East Sea: South Korea’s military
— Yonhap News Agency (@YonhapNews) October 28, 2022
Seoul and Washington have repeatedly warned that Pyongyang could be close to testing a nuclear bomb for the first time since 2017, following a flurry of ballistic missile launches.
Leader Kim Jong Un has made the development of tactical nuclear weapons — smaller, battlefield-ready weapons — a priority, and Seoul recently warned that North Korea may be preparing to conduct multiple tests consecutive nukes as part of this push.
On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said North Korea was ready to conduct another nuclear test, which would be its seventh.
“It seems they have already completed preparations for a seventh nuclear test,” he told Parliament during a budget speech on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the United States, South Korea and Japan warned that an “unparalleled” response would be warranted if North Korea tests a nuclear weapon.