SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired one short-range ballistic missile and another ballistic missile on Monday, South Korea's military said.
The first short-range ballistic missile was fired to the northeast around 5:05 a.m. (2005 Sunday GMT) from near Changyon, South Hwanghae Province in North Korea. Another unknown ballistic missile was detected around 5:15 a.m. from the same area, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The first missile flew about 600 kms (373 miles). The second flew about 120 kms, with South Korea and the United States analysing the launch, it added.
"We strongly condemn North Korea's missile launch as a provocation that seriously threatens peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, adding it shared information on the missiles with U.S. and Japanese authorities.
"The South Korean military will maintain its capacity and posture to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation while closely monitoring North Korea's various activities under a strong South Korea-U.S. joint defense posture."
On Sunday, North Korea criticised a joint military exercise by South Korea, Japan and the United States held last month and warned of "overwhelming response" against such drills.
North Korea said last week it had successfully conducted an important test aimed at developing missiles carrying multiple warheads, a claim rejected by South Korea as "deception" to mask a failed launch.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Joyce Lee; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Stephen Coates)
