North Korea today proceeded to test launch of two “ballistic missiles of unknown type’ while the leader of Kim Jong Un is in Russia, where he is shortly to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin.

The launches were “in the direction of the East Sea,” the national defense general staff in Seoul said, referring to the sea area also known as the Sea of ​​Japan.

Japan’s state broadcaster NHK reported that the North Korean missiles apparently fell about five minutes after launch, outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Mr. Kim is expected to hold talks with Mr. Putin at Russia’s most modern spaceport, in a wooded area in the Russian Far East, a Russian state television station correspondent in the Kremlin also reported, with the flags of the two countries in the background.

All of North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development activities are in theory banned under UN Security Council resolutions, the most recent of which was adopted in 2017, with the consent of key partners Pyongyang, China and of Russia.

But since then, Beijing and Moscow have called for an easing of sanctions on North Korea to resume diplomatic contacts and improve the situation, blocking efforts by the West and its allies to impose new sanctions. The SA has not reached any consensus decision on North Korea since 2017.