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In an apparent protest over a regular South Korea-US combined military exercise to begin this week, North Korea fired two "strategic cruise missiles" from a submarine in waters off its east coast over the weekend, state media said on Monday, reported Yonhap News Agency.

North Korea said on Oct. 20 that it had test-fired a newly developed ballistic missile from a submarine, in its first such underwater test-launch in two years and one it says will bolster its military's undersea capabilities.

North Korea fired a suspected submarine-launched ballistic missile into the sea on Oct. 19, the South's military said, the nuclear-armed country's latest advance in weapons technology and one that could give it a second-strike capability.

North Korea has confirmed that it fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its east coast.

The official statement states that this is a new type of rocket fired from a vertical position. The purpose of the successful attempt is to strengthen the country's military self-defense power.

 NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged all United Nation members on Tuesday to fully and transparently implement sanctions against North Korea, which he said has emerged as a global threat able to fire ballistic missiles as far as Europe and North America, reported Reuters. 

A North Korean missile fired over Japan Tuesday was denounced by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as a "most serious and grave" threat, reported CNN.

North Korea said yesterday that it had successfully tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile which met all technical requirements and could now be mass-produced, indicating advances in its ambitions to be able to hit the United States.

North Korea said on May 15 it had successfully conducted a mid- to-long-range missile test and would continue such launches "any time, any place", defying U.N. Security Council resolutions and warnings from the United States.

North Korea test-launched a missile of an unknown type early on Sunday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported citing the country's military.

"The North launched the missile from the country's northwest city of Kusong," the South Korean agency reported, citing the Joint Chief of Staff.

The United States and South Korea agreed on April 6 to proceed with the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defence system that has angered China, while the U.S.