North Korea launches missiles as it dials up pressure against U.S.

North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea on Sunday, South Korea's military said.

The launches came just days after Pyongyang reasserted its status as a nuclear-armed state and rejected a United Nations resolution demanding it halt its nuclear activities. They were also the latest in a series of weapons demonstrations even after President Trump scaled back a joint military exercise with South Korea last month in an apparent effort to revive diplomacy with the North's leader, Kim Jong Un.

The two missile launches — about three hours apart — were conducted from North Korea's eastern coastal Wonsan area. The first missile flew about 280 miles while the second one flew more than 370 miles, both toward the North's eastern waters, South Korea's military said.

"South Korean and U.S. authorities are conducting a detailed analysis to determine its exact specifications," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said of the second missile.

The missiles eventually ended up in the sea. South Korea's presidential office urged North Korea to immediately halt ballistic missile launches that are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions. The South's military said it maintains readiness to repel any provocations by the North under a solid alliance with the U.S.

Japan's Defense Ministry said it detected a suspected North Korean missile earlier Sunday but that the weapon did not land in its territorial waters.

Kim's sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, earlier shrugged off Mr. Trump's overture, saying that shortening the drill wouldn't change its "provocative, aggressive nature." North Korea's military later launched about 10 short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea, apparently following through with a previous threat to respond to the U.S.-South Korean drill.

On Friday, Kim's sister slammed another recent U.S.-led multilateral maritime exercise in the region as a "frantic military move" by the Americans meant to prolong their hegemony in the Asia-Pacific area. The "Pacific Vanguard" exercise brought together the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

She claimed that "regular U.S.-led war rehearsals" are the main source of worsening tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the region.

"Our will to defend our sovereignty will be expressed in clearer action and there will be never ever change in the course of intensifying the nuclear war deterrence," she said.

Earlier this month, North Korea conducted what it called a joint live-fire drill involving missiles, artillery and drones, a day after the United States, South Korea and Japan wrapped their five-day trilateral military drill that North Korea described as a provocation. North Korea said its drill included firing different types of weapons simultaneously, likely aiming at developing the ability to overwhelm South Korean and U.S. air defenses.