North Korea shot on Monday two short-range missilesthe most recent in its spate of weapons tests in recent weeks, the South Korean armed forces reported.

“Our armed forces found out two short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Junghwa area of ​​North Hwanghae Province I am on my way to the Sea of ​​Japan,” the Seoul Joint Chiefs of Staff (EMC) said in a statement.

rockets flew about 230 miles each, and the launch was a “serious act of provocation that harm the peace and stability of the international community and the Korean Peninsula,” the EMC added.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense also confirmed the launch. Japanese media quoted authorities as saying that both missiles flew into an irregular orbit before falling outside of their economic exclusion zone.

The launch came after Seoul and Washington completed their largest joint military exercises in five years on Thursday, when the two armies staged a mock amphibious landing.

The US accuses Russia and China of “encouraging” North Korea’s missile launches

Pyongyang believes such maneuvers they are the rehearsal of an invasionand stated on Friday that the recent exercises, dubbed Freedom Shield, were training to “occupy” North Korea.

North Korean state media reported last week that the US and South Korean military exercises are calling for “stronger war deterrents,” including a “multifaceted and offensive nuclear strike capability.”

Pyongyang has held its own military exercises, including the second intercontinental ballistic missile launch of the year and the testing of an underwater drone for nuclear strikes.

“Warn the Enemy”

That’s what analysts said earlier North Korea could use those exercises as an excuse to launch more missiles and maybe even a nuclear test.

North Korean state media said on Friday that the test of the “nuclear attack submarine drone” personally supervised by leader Kim Jong-un was conducted to “warn the enemy of a real nuclear crisis”.

The drone’s mission is to “surreptitiously infiltrate operational waters and cause a large-scale radioactive tsunami… to destroy enemy offensive fleets and key operational ports,” the official KCNA news agency reported.

The agency also said last Wednesday that Pyongyang was firing strategic cruise missiles “equipped with a test warhead that simulated a nuclear warhead.” Analysts dispute the North Korean claims, saying they had no credible demonstration of competence.

But they added that Pyongyang is moving from simply stockpiling nuclear warheads to diversifying its means of delivery. After a record year of weapons testing and increasing nuclear threats from Pyongyang in 2022, Seoul and Washington have stepped up their security cooperation.

North Korea’s actions also prompted South Korea and Japan to restore relations, strained by historic disputes, with a view to closer cooperation on security.

North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power last year, and leader Kim recently called for an “exponential” increase in weapons production, including tactical nuclear weapons.

Kim also weeks ago ordered his country’s armed forces to step up preparations for a “real war.”