North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles into Sea of Japan

BREAKING: North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, Seoul says, with at least two believed to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.

North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan this morning.

Seoul's military detected several launches from the Pyongyang area, with the weapons flying more than 900 kilometres. Tokyo tracked two of them, and both appear to have splashed down outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. South Korea says it's on an all-out readiness posture and sharing data with Washington and Tokyo in real time.

The timing matters. Days ago, three South Korean soldiers were injured by a land mine along the border, Seoul blamed the North, and Pyongyang warned of retaliation if even a millimetre of its territory were violated. This is now the fourth launch in about a month, following Kim Jong Un's test of what state media called a hypersonic strategic weapon.

And that's the uncomfortable part for Japan. These newer missiles can pull up and change course mid-flight, which means the radar built to stop them may not even see them coming.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.