North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday after the United States redeployed an aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula.
This missile launch is the sixth in about 12 days. Earlier on Tuesday, North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile over Japan prompted South Korea and the US to conduct missile drills.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the latest missiles were launched 22 minutes apart from the North's capital region and landed between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
The first missile flew 350 kilometers (217 miles) and reached a maximum altitude of 80 kilometers (50 miles) and the second flew 800 kilometers (497 miles) on an apogee of 60 kilometers (37 miles).
The latest missile launch suggest North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is determined to continue with weapons tests aimed at boosting his nuclear arsenal in defiance of international sanctions.
South Korea's military said it has boosted its surveillance posture and maintains readiness in close coordination with the United States. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the launches didn't pose an immediate threat to the United States or its allies, but still highlighted the "destabilising impact" of North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the North's continued launches were "absolutely intolerable".
On Tuesday, North Korea staged its most provocative weapons demonstration since 2017, firing an intermediate-range missile over Japan, forcing the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.
Thursday's launches came as the US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan returned to waters east of South Korea in what South Korea's military called an attempt to demonstrate the allies' "firm will" to counter North's continued provocations and threats.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that the redeployment of the Reagan strike group poses "a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity".
The ministry said it strongly condemns US-led efforts at the UN Security Council to tighten sanctions on the North over its recent missile testing, which it described as a "just counteraction" to joint US-South Korean drills.
After the North's intermediate-range missile launch, the United States and South Korea also carried out their own live-fire drills that have so far involved land-to-land ballistic missiles and precision-guided bombs dropped from fighter jets.
After Tuesday's North Korean launch, the United States, Britain, France, Albania, Norway and Ireland called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
(With inputs from PTI)