North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles into the sea, flouting UN resolutions and threatening 'peace and stability' in the region.
Amid growing tensions with the US, the military in South Korea reported an 'unidentified projectile' had been fired off the peninsula's east coast on Thursday.
The Japanese Prime Minister blasted the launch as a threat to the region that violated UN resolutions banning ballistic missiles.
The launces from the secretive state could test new US President Joe Biden, coming as the first strikes in his term of office.
North Korea had earlier threatened it would not engage with Biden until he dropped 'hostile policies', including carrying out military drills with South Korea.
Confirming the latest launch the Japanese government said the missiles flew about 280 miles before landing outside the Japanese exclusive economic zone.
"The first launch in just less than a year represents a threat to peace and stability in Japan and the region and violates UN resolutions," Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in comments aired by public broadcaster NHK.
Ballistic missiles from the dictatorship are banned under UN Security Council Resolutions. The launch is the first ballistic-missile test under new US President Joe Biden.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff did not identify what the projectile was or when it was launched.
US officials told Reuters that North Korea had carried out a new projectile launch, without giving details on the number or kind of projectile detected.
Earlier the Japanese coast guard warned ships against coming close to any fallen objects and instead asked them to provide information to the coast guard.
South Korea's presidential Blue House will hold an emergency meeting of the national security council to discuss the launches.
It comes after North Korea fired two short-range missiles at the weekend, U.S. and South Korean officials said.
But the US played down the first such tests under Joe Biden and said it was still open to dialogue with Pyongyang.
The country has not tested a intercontinental ballistic missile in more than three years, but has continued production of nuclear weapons.
News of the launches comes a week after Kim Yo Jong, sister of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, sent a warning to Joe Biden.
"We take this opportunity to warn the new US administration trying hard to give off powder smell in our land," she said, the North Korean state news agency reports.
"If it wants to sleep in peace for [the] coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step."
Biden's predecessor Donald Trump first met the North Korean despot during a tense summit in Singapore in June 2018.
The historic showdown led to further face-to-face meetings with Kim Jong Un as part of a bid to disarm the isolated country.
But diplomacy failed during a summit in Vietnam in 2019 and no deal was reached after North Korea sought to to get crippling sanctions lifted.
