SEOUL: North Korea fired what appeared to be two ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan on Tuesday, Tokyo said. South Korea’s Joint Chief of Staff also said it had detected a “projectile” being fired toward what Seoul calls the East Sea. Japan’s coast guard, citing the defense ministry, said it had detected two ballistic missiles and that both were estimated to have already splashed down. Japanese news agency Jiji Press reported the two missiles had landed outside of the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, citing defense ministry sources.

North Korea launched multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Tuesday afternoon, Seoul's military said.

The launches are the second this month after Pyongyang says it tested hypersonic missiles three weeks ago.