In a move likely to alarm the international community, the North Korean government has reportedly fired a series of short-range test missiles towards the Sea of Japan.
The nation has already been threatened with UN sanctions due to its development of nuclear weaponry and is likely to arouse further suspicion from nearby Japan.
Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister recently proposed constitutional reform to allow a more active role for the Japanese military, partly due to the threat posed by North Korea.
While the South Korean government played down the incident, describing the tests as "part of customary drills that North Korea has conducted annually", other commentators were less serene.
Paul French, author of North Korea: Paranoid Peninsula, said to Bloomberg: "Who knows why they are doing this? It's them being totally contrary", though the recent North Korean display of a ballistic missile sufficiently powerful to reach Guam would suggest that the recent tests were part of a continued military regime.
While the US Embassy in Tokyo awaited confirmation of the missile tests, an EC representative criticised the apparent drill: "The European Commission, along with all the international parties, is concerned by all actions that could risk destabilising the situation in the region."
The missiles are thought to have been launched from Hamgyong-Namdo province, on the north east coast of North Korea.
