The defense ministry said it is on high alert and monitoring the situation. It called on the North to stop the missile launches.
The weapons launched were
Scud missiles that flew more than 500 kilometers (311 miles), according
to the defense ministry. The missiles landed in the sea, South Korea's
semi-official Yonhap news agency reported.
On Thursday, four Scud missiles
with a shorter range were fired into the sea off North Korea's eastern
coast -- flying about 220 kilometers (137 miles), according to Yonhap --
just days after the start of annual joint military exercises between
South Korea and the United States. North Korea opposes such exercises,
which routinely cause friction among the three countries.
Last year's exercises triggered weeks of heightened tensions between the nations and North Korean threats of nuclear war.
Thursday's launch was the
first time North Korea had fired Scud missiles, which have a range that
covers the whole of the Korean Peninsula, since 2009, South Korea said.
Foreign policy experts
say the North Korean missile firings may not herald a repeat of last
year's saber rattling from Pyongyang, which included threats of
preemptive nuclear strikes against the United States and South Korea and
the declaration that the armistice that stopped the Korean War in 1953
is null and void.
