North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the sea Sunday, Seoul's military said, in an apparent show of anger at an upcoming joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States.The North fired the two ballistic missiles into the East Sea (Sea of Japan) at 1:20 and 1:30am local time, the South's defence ministry front man said.
"Their range appeared to be around 500 kilometres (311 miles)," he said, adding Seoul's military had stepped up monitoring for additional launches.
The move — the latest in a series of similar launches in recent weeks — came a day after Pyongyang condemned an upcoming Seoul-Washington naval joint exercise.
The annual drill, from July 16-21, involves the US aircraft carrier George Washington, which arrived in the southern port of Busan on Friday.
The North bristled Saturday at the nuclear-powered carrier visiting the port, calling it a "reckless" act of provocation.
"The US should properly understand that the more persistently it resorts to reckless nuclear blackmail and threat, the further (the North) will bolster up its cutting-edge nuclear force for self-defence," said the North's top military body, the National Defence Commission.
The North has habitually slammed joint military exercises south of the border and often responded with missile test-launches.