New Delhi: South Korea’s military has said that North Korea fired more than 10 ballistic missiles into the sea on Saturday (March 14) even as the US and South Korean forces conducted ​military drills. The latest development comes as US president Donald Trump has renewed overtures towards Pyongyang for dialogue, reported Reuters.

The coast guard of Japan said that it had detected what could be a ballistic missile that fell ⁠into the sea. It seemed to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone, said public broadcaster ​NHK, citing the military.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that the missiles were launched from an area near North Korea’s capital Pyongyang, around ​1:20 p.m. (0430 GMT) towards the sea off the country's east coast, reported Reuters.

For more than two decades, North Korea has test-launched a diverse range of ballistic and cruise missiles in its bid to develop the means to deliver nuclear weapons, which it is ​believed to have successfully built.

As a result, Pyongyang has been under multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006 ‌but ⁠it remains defiant, despite severe obstacles they created to its trade, economy and defence.

The latest launch of missiles comes as South Korea and Washington launched the annual major drills in South Korea, which the two countries have termed as ‘purely defensive” and aimed at testing readiness against military threats from North Korea.

River-crossing drills were conducted by hundreds of U.S. and South ​Korean troops on Saturday. The hardware used in the drills included tanks and armoured combat vehicles, overseen by the commander of their combined forces. At present, the US military has about 28,500 troops and squadrons ​of fighter jets stationed in South Korea.

North Korea has often expressed its anger ​at such ⁠exercises and said that they are "dress rehearsals" for armed aggression against it by the allies.

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