North Korea fires short-range ballistic missiles into sea

North Korea has fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, according to South Korea's military, a day after Seoul announced it was scaling back its military drills with the United States.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said about 10 short-range ballistic missiles were launched from Pyongyang towards North Korea's eastern waters at around 5pm local time on Thursday.

South Korea's presidential national security council held an emergency meeting following the missile launches and issued a statement urging North Korea to halt ballistic missile launches that are banned by UN Security Council resolutions.

South Korea has since bolstered its surveillance posture and said it was closely coordinating information with the United States and Japan.

The Japanese prime minister's office also confirmed it had detected a suspected missile launch.

The missile launch comes amid the US and South Korea's annual military training drills and less than a day after US President Donald Trump said he planned to meet North Korea leader Kim Jong Un later this year.

The training drills will end six days early this year after Mr Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the exercise.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield is one of the main military exercises conducted by the US and South Korea each year to enhance their ability to cope with potential North Korean aggression.

While Washington and Seoul say their drills are defensive in nature, North Korea calls them an invasion rehearsal and often reacts with weapons tests.

Before this month's drills started, North Korea accused the US and South Korea of plotting more provocative exercises this summer and vowed to respond with "a new level of a deterrent".

China weighs in on Korean Peninsula tensions

Thursday's missile launch also came as China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited South Korea.

During the visit, the foreign minister urged South Korea not to take sides between Beijing and Washington, saying the US should abandon its "hostile" policy towards North Korea to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

"The fundamental solution to the tensions on the Korean Peninsula lies in addressing the root causes of the problem and urging the United States to abandon its hostile policy toward North Korea," he said, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, during a meeting with South Korea's National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac.

China hopes South Korea will "achieve genuine strategic autonomy, refrain from bloc confrontation and taking sides, and develop relations with major powers including China and the United States in parallel and without contradiction".

North Korea also fired a short-range ballistic missile over the Sea of Japan earlier this month, a day after Pyongyang criticised Japan's military build-up in the region.