The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched at least one unidentified projectile on Wednesday, according to the Republic of Korea (ROK) military and Japan's Coast Guard and government, a day after Pyongyang signaled a resumption of nuclear talks with the U.S.
"The DPRK fired unidentified projectiles from Wonsan... towards the East Sea (Sea of Japan) this morning," ROK's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
"Our military is monitoring the situation for additional launches and maintaining a readiness posture."
Japan's Coast Guard said in a statement that the DPRK had launched what appeared to be a missile and urged vessels to pay attention to further information and not to approach any debris.
However, Japan's chief government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said it appeared two missiles were launched within minutes of each other and that the first of them fell in waters within Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone.
"Two projectiles were launched from the eastern coast of the DPRK," the chief cabinet secretary said. "One of them appears to have fallen into waters... inside Japan's exclusive economic zone."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had instructed his ministers to investigate, Suga said
The launch came a day after the DPRK's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said that Pyongyang had agreed to hold working-level talks with Washington later this week.
The two sides will have "preliminary contact" on October 4 and hold negotiations the following day, Choe Son Hui said in a statement reported by the official Korean Central News Agency. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus later confirmed the talks, which she said would happen "within the next week".
The launch was the ninth since U.S. President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un met at the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas in June.
Talks aimed at dismantling DPRK's nuclear and missile programs have been stalled since the second summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February ended without a deal.
Trump has played down the recent series of short-range launches, saying in September Washington and Pyongyang "didn't have an agreement on short-range missiles" and that many countries test such weapons.
