<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">North Korea has fired at least one long-range and two short-range ballistic missiles, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says one may have been an intercontinental ballistic missile.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It comes after Pyongyang on Wednesday launched its most missiles in a single day - including one that landed near South Korea's territorial waters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seoul responded by firing three missiles of its own.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">North Korea's multiple launches comes as the US and South Korea are staging their largest-ever joint air drills, which Pyongyang has strongly criticised as "aggressive and provocative".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The latest launch on Thursday morning led the Japanese government to issue a rare emergency alert to residents in some of its northern regions, telling them to stay indoors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tokyo initially said the missile had flown over Japan, but Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada later said it did "not cross the Japanese archipelago, but disappeared over the Sea of Japan".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">PM Kishida later condemned North Korea's "repeated missile launches", calling them an "outrage".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said the launches were "deplorable, immoral" during a phone call on Thursday, according to South Korea.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It comes just a month after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan - the first time it had done so in five years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The North has tested a record number of missiles this year as tensions have risen.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite crippling sanctions, Pyongyang has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017, and is believed to be planning a seventh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has continued to advance its military capability - in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions - to threaten its neighbours and potentially even bring the US mainland within striking range.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wednesday's launch saw one of Pyongyang's ballistic missiles cross the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed maritime border between the Koreas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It landed outside South Korea's territorial waters but was the closest a North Korean missile got to the border.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seoul responded with warplanes firing three air-to-ground missiles that also crossed the disputed maritime demarcation line. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>