NORTH KOREA test-fired a pair of ballistic missiles with the potential of hitting Japan yesterday in an apparent response to Tokyo’s increasingly offensive military strategy.

Japan announced on Friday that it has adopted a new $320 billion (£264 bn) security strategy to push for more a offensive footing against both North Korea and China.

The plans would allow Tokyo to carry out pre-emptive strikes and double its military spending in a drastic contrast to its strictly self-defence-only post-war principle.

Yesterday’s missile run came two days after the nation said it successfully carried out tests needed to build a more mobile, powerful intercontinental ballistic missile designed to reach the United States.

Japan’s Vice-Defence Minister Toshiro Ino said that the missiles seemed to have landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone and that there had been no damages.

South Korea’s military described both missiles as medium-range weapons that were launched at a steep angle, suggesting they could have travelled further if fired at a standard trajectory.

In October, it fired an intermediate-range missile over Japan, forcing residents in the capital to seek shelter.

In an emergency meeting, top South Korean security officials yesterday deplored what they called North Korea’s continued provocations that they said came despite “the plight of its citizens moaning in hunger and cold due to a serious food shortage.”

They said South Korea will boost a trilateral security co-operation with the US and Japan, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

It added that the continued provocations and development of nuclear weapons would only further endanger the North Korean regime.

Mr Ino also criticised North Korea for threatening the safety of Japan, the region and the international community.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said that the launches highlight the “destabilising impact of North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes.”

It said that the US commitments to the defence of South Korea and Japan “remain ironclad.”

Academic Kwon Young Soo, formerly at Korea National Defence University in South Korea, said that the launch was an “armed protest with a land version of a submarine-launched ballistic missile that it can fire quickly in response” to the Japanese national security strategy.

North Korea has conducted a large number of missile tests this year.