NORTH KOREA - Report: North Korea fires two missiles off eastern coast

By Paula Hancocks, CNN

March 3, 2014 -- Updated 0030 GMT (0830 HKT)

An unidentified North Korean missile is displayed during a Pyongyang military parade in 2013.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The South Korean Defense Ministry is on high alert
• The launch is the second in less than a week
• They come after the start of joint military exercises between U.S. and South Korea

Seoul (CNN) -- North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its eastern coast on Monday, the second such launch in less than a week, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.

The defense ministry said it is on high alert and monitoring the situation.

Last week, four Scud missiles were fired into the sea off North Korea's eastern coast just days after the start of annual joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States. North Korea opposes such exercises, which routinely spark tension among the three countries.

Last year's exercises triggered weeks of heightened tensions between the nations and North Korean threats of nuclear war.

North Korea fires four missiles

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.