North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles from one of its coastal areas, South Korean military chiefs have claimed.
The launches on Monday come two days after North Korea’s state media said leader Kim Jong Un supervised an artillery drill aimed at testing the combat readiness of units in front-line and eastern areas.
It marks the resumption of weapons demonstrations from Pyongyang following a hiatus.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed the launches in a statement but could not immediately confirm how far the projectiles flew or whether the weapons were ballistic or rocket artillery.
During a key ruling party meeting in late December, Mr Kim expressed deep frustration over deadlocked diplomacy with the United States and said he would not denuclearise if the US persists with its hostile policy on his country.
He also said he would unveil a new “strategic weapon” soon and no longer be bound by a self-imposed weapons test moratorium that coincided with his diplomacy with Donald Trump.
Nuclear diplomacy between North Korea and the US has largely stalled since the breakdown of Mr Kim’s second summit with Mr Trump in February 2019 in Vietnam.
That summit collapsed because Mr Trump rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in return for dismantling his main nuclear complex, a limited disarmament step.
After the failed Hanoi summit, North Korea carried out a slew of short-range missile and other weapons tests.
Mr Trump downplayed them saying there were short-range weapons that did not pose a direct threat to the US mainland.
Agencies contributed to this article
