North Korea launched two more ballistic missiles off its east coast on Monday, with the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un saying Pyongyang's use of the Pacific as its "firing range" would depend on the behaviour of U.S. forces.
The launches come just two days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea off Japan's west coast, prompting the United States to hold joint air exercises with South Korea and separately with Japan on Sunday.
North Korea's state media confirmed it fired two projectiles from a multiple rocket launcher, aiming at targets 395 km (245 miles) and 337 km (209 miles) away, respectively.
"The 600mm multiple rocket launcher mobilised in the firing... is a means of tactical nuclear weapon," capable of "paralysing" an enemy airfield, state news agency KCNA said.
Japan's Defense Ministry said the two missiles, launched around 2200 GMT, reached a maximum altitude of about 100 km and 50 km, and fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he had requested an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting over the tests, and Jiji news agency said the gathering was set for 2000 GMT Monday.
But prospects for a new round of U.N. sanctions appear slim given the previous vetoes by Russia and China amid the Ukraine crisis and a Sino-U.S. feud over Chinese balloons found in the American skies.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly condemned the launches as a "grave provocation" that should be ceased immediately.
Seoul's foreign ministry announced sanctions on four individuals and five entities linked to Pyongyang's weapons programmes on Monday over the latest ICBM and missile tests, in what it called its fastest-ever such response to the North's provocations.
The ministry said its nuclear envoy had phone calls with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts during which they agreed that North Korea's provocations cannot be justified in any way and it will only face "consequences of self-indulgence."
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command highlighted the "destabilising impact" of North Korea's unlawful weapons programmes, while U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric urged Pyongyang to halt such provocations banned under Security Council resolutions, and resume denuclearisation dialogue.
