Seoul, March 26 (IANS) North Korea on Friday confirmed the launch of ballistic missiles a day earlier for the first time in about a year.

In a report, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said: "The newly developed new-type tactical guided projectile is a weapon system whose warhead weight has been improved to be 2.5 tonnes with the use of the core technology of tactical guided projectile that was already developed."

According to the KCNA, the launch was conducted by the Academy of Defence Science and it was "very successful just as it had been confidently predicted", Yonhap News Agency reported.

The two missiles "accurately hit the target" set in the water 600 km off the East Coast, it added.

On Thursday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from the North's Hamju town in South Hamgyong Province, at 7.06 a.m and 7.25 a.m. and flew around 450 km with an altitude of 60 km.

The last time North Korea fired a ballistic missile was in March 2020.

The KCNA report said the launch was guided by Ri Pyong-chol, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, but leader Kim Jong-un did not oversee the missile testing.

Thursday's launches came four days after the country fired two cruise missiles into the Yellow Sea on Sunday.

--IANS ksk/