Daily US Times: Japanese and US officials say North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan – the first such test since Joe Biden became US president.

North Korea is banned from carrying out ballistic missile tests under UN Security Council resolutions.

Tokyo said no debris had fallen within its territorial waters.

It comes just days after Pyongyang fired two non-ballistic cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea.

Ballistic missiles are considered threatening weapons and are banned from testing but cruise missiles are not banned.

Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s Prime Minister, said on Thursday that the missile tests by North Korea posed a threat to security and peace in the region.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff initially issued a statement saying the launch of two “unidentified projectile”.

The tests come as the Joe Biden administration continues to try to make contact with North Korea.

The current focus of the Biden administration and its allies is the impending review on North Korea policy.

Decades of sanctions and three summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and former US President Donald Trump have failed to prevent Pyongyang from developing a larger and more deadly nuclear arsenal.

This latest ballistic missiles test is North Korea’s second weapons test in just a few days. On Sunday, the North launched two short-range weapons – most likely artillery or cruise missiles – which the US president Joe Biden described as “business as usual”.

You may read: North Korea conducted short-range missile test, White House officials say