Tests come days after South Korea and US leaders agree to scale up joint military drills

Seoul: North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, days after South Korea and US leaders agreed to scale up joint military drills and deployment of American weapons.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the three ballistic missile launches occurred in the space of less than an hour from the Sunan area of the North’s capital Pyongyang.

President Joe Biden and his new South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol agreed on Saturday to hold bigger military drills and deploy more US strategic assets if necessary to deter North Korea’s intensifying weapons tests.

But they also offered to send COVID-19 vaccines to North Korea as the isolated country battles its first confirmed outbreak.