Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder held a news briefing Wednesday following the firing of two North Korean short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters. The move comes a day before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is to visit South Korea.
Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North Korean missiles lifted off 10 minutes apart on Wednesday afternoon from its capital region and flew toward the waters off its east coast.
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Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino said Japan's military also detected the launches and that the weapons flew in an irregular trajectory.
Ino said that "North Korea's repeated missile firings amid (Russia's) invasion of Ukraine is impermissible." The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea's provocations would only deepen its international isolation while pushing South Korea and the United States to strengthen their deterrence.