Seoul: Wednesday appears to have seen a number of cruise missile launches from North Korea, according to the Yonhap news agency in South Korea. The number of missiles fired was not immediately known, but Yonhap speculated that they could have been long-range strategic cruise missiles from the North.

In the past few weeks, North Korea has increased the frequency of its military tests, launching an intercontinental ballistic missile last week and simulating a nuclear strike against the US and South Korea over the weekend.

The military of South Korea, according to the report, has increased its surveillance posture and keeps itself ready in close coordination with the US military. According to the defence ministry of Japan, a possible North Korean missile was fired early on Sunday.

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The alleged weapon landed outside of Japan's exclusive economic zone, according to the report. No immediate reports of damage in the region were available.

Since the start of the joint military exercises between the US and South Korean militaries last Monday, the North has conducted three rounds of weapons tests.
The most recent US-South Korean exercises, which feature both computer simulations and live-fire drills, will go on until Thursday. The field training is the most significant of its kind since 2018.

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Although Washington and Seoul have consistently maintained that their training is defensive in nature, the North views such US-South Korean military exercises as a practise for launching an invasion.

The longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea has ever tested, the Hwasong-17, is intended to strike the US mainland. Kim Jong Un, the leader of the North, was quoted by its state media as saying that the ICBM launch was intended to "strike fear into the enemies."

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North Korea also fired cruise missiles from a submarine the day before the drills began. According to the North's official media, the submarine-launched missile was a sign of its determination to retaliate with "overwhelming powerful" force against the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces' escalating military manoeuvres.