Nuclear-armed North Korea test fired two ballistic missiles early on Thursday, media reports said quoting Japan’s prime minister Yoshihide Suga. 

This is the first such mission to be carried out during the administration of US President Joe Biden.

The projectiles were launched on North Korea’s east coast and are believed to have landed in the sea outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, the reports added. 

North Korea has a long history of using weapons tests as provocations, in a carefully calibrated process to forward its objectives.

It is banned from developing ballistic missiles under the UN security council resolutions, and is under multiple international sanctions over its weapons programmes. 

But it has made rapid progress in its capabilities under Kim Jong-un, testing missiles capable of reaching the entire continental United States as tensions mounted in 2017.

Thursday’s launch comes after North Korea fired two short-range, non-ballistic missiles in a westerly direction, towards China, at the weekend.