TOKYO/SEOUL -- North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, raising regional tensions just days after the isolated nation said it tested a cruise missile.
The projectiles are not believed to have landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone, according to Japan's Coast Guard.
The launch of ballistic missiles "threatens the peace and security of our country and the region and is outrageous. We strongly protest and condemn it," Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo. He added that he instructed relevant ministries and agencies to collect and analyze information on the launches.
The firings -- the first of ballistic missiles since March -- follow Pyongyang saying it carried out successful tests of a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend. Neither the U.S., Japan or South Korea have yet provided details of the missile that analysts see as possibly the country's first such weapon with a nuclear capability.
The launch was reported as Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, is in Tokyo for talks with Japanese and South Korean counterparts. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is also in Seoul for dialogue with his opposite number there.
The Japanese government made a protest over the ballistic missiles to North Korea vis the Beijing diplomatic route, a foreign ministry official revealed. The recent moves come while talks between North Korea and the U.S. have remained stalled since 2019.
North Korea appears to have resumed activities at its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, the International Atomic Energy Agency said last month, painting a picture of Pyongyang continuing to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
North Korea's official KCNA news service called the cruise missile a "a strategic weapon of great significance in meeting the key target of the five-year plan for the development of the defense science and the weapon system" set forth at the Workers' Party congress early this year. Analysts say the term strategic weapon is used to describe a nuclear capable device.
South Korea recently conducted its first successful underwater test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, it was revealed last week. This makes South Korea the eighth country to possess such capabilities, joining peers such as the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K., France and India. North Korea was the seventh.
The South Korean military was set to provide details of the test later Wednesday.
Sung Kim, U.S. special envoy for North Korea, speaks to reporters in Tokyo. (Photo by Hirofumi Takeuchi) Prior to Wednesday's launch, U.S. special envoy Kim talked of the need for Washington, Tokyo and Seoul to maintain a strong stance against North Korea's development of weapons.
"Whatever the intention is, whether it was to send a message to Washington or whether it's as basic as them wanting to develop this capability for whatever purpose, obviously it's concerning that they are continuing to pursue these dangerous capabilities," Kim said.
"This is why it's so important for our alliance to continue to maintain the strongest possible deterrent capability," he added about the trilateral partnership.
Kim acknowledged the North Korean tests' destabilizing effect on Japan and South Korea and offered assurance that the recent withdrawal from Afghanistan had no implications regarding U.S. commitment to both allies.
"As someone who's directly involved in this effort I can assure you our senior leaders are very focused on developments in the Korean peninsula," he said.
Kim said that the U.S. would not set an arbitrary deadline for North Korea to return to negotiations in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that Washington is prepared to resume talks with North Korea without preconditions.