The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should stop acts that are unhelpful for easing military tension, Republic of Korea (ROK) Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

The projectiles the DPRK fired early on Thursday were short-range missiles, the ministry spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo said.

Two missiles were fired just after dawn and they flew a distance of around 430 kilometers before falling into the Japan Sea (also known as the East Sea).

Tokyo said the launches did not reach Japanese waters, with Japan's defense minister calling Pyongyang's move "extremely regrettable". "We have confirmed so far that they did not reach our country's territory or exclusive economic zone," Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters.

Pyongyang last fired short-range missiles on May 9, which U.S. President Donald Trump called "very standard stuff" that, he said, had not affected his relationship with its leader Kim Jong Un. Kim and Trump agreed to a resumption of dialogue at an impromptu June 30 meeting they held in the Demilitarized Zone on the border between the DPRK and the ROK.

Following that meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said working-level talks would probably start in mid-July.

But last week, DPRK issued a warning over the military drills between Washington and Seoul scheduled for next month. It condemned the exercises as "blatant pressure" and a "violation of the spirit" of the joint statement Trump and Kim signed at their first summit in Singapore last year.

Earlier this week, Kim also inspected a newly constructed submarine, calling for the development of naval armed forces to boost the country's military capabilities, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

(With input from Reuters and AFP)