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 (CNN) -- North Korea fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, according to South Korea's semiofficial news agency Yonhap, citing a South Korean military official. 
 
 On Saturday, North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea, also known as the East Sea, off the Korean Peninsula's east coast, Yonhap reported. 
 
 The missiles on Saturday were fired in a northeasterly direction, away from South Korean waters, the ministry said. 
 
 South Korea has beefed up monitoring on North Korea and is maintaining a high level of readiness to deal with any risky developments, the ministry added, according to Yonhap. 
 
 According to the Arms Control Association, a U.S.-based organization, short-range guided missiles are generally classified as those traveling less than 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles). 
 
 Tensions in the region have eased since a period last month that included near daily North Korean threats of war. 
 
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 U.S. and South Korean officials feared at that time that Kim Jong Un's regime was planning to carry out a test launch of longer-range ballistic missiles, believed to be Musudans. The South Korean government says they have a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles). 
 
 Andrew Salmon, a journalist and author based in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said North Korea's reported launch of short-range missiles Saturday should not cause the same degree of concern as the launch of a satellite or medium-range Musudan rocket. 
 
 "It's a short-range tactical weapon. If any other country launched this kind of weapon, it's a routine test, nobody would be too worried. It's really simply because it's North Korea doing this that it raises concerns," he said. 
 
 The situation is much less tense in the region than it was last month, Salmon said. 
 
 "The North Koreans have significantly de-escalated their bellicosity and their rhetoric since the end of April," he said. "The South Korean government, I suspect, will not be strongly condemnatory of this test because right now they are very, very keen to get the North Koreans to the negotiating table." 
 
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 The recent tensions flared after the North's long-range rocket launch in December and underground nuclear test in February, both of which were widely condemned. 
 
 Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric intensified in March as the U.N. Security Council voted to tighten sanctions on the regime following the nuclear test. 
 
 Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills in South Korea also fueled the North's anger, especially when the United States carried out displays of strength that included nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers. 
 
 North Korea is demanding recognition as a nuclear power, something the United States refuses to accept. 
 
 Last month's crisis resulted in the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. 
 
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 CNN's Jethro Mullen contributed to this report. ||||| 1 of 4. South Koreans look at the North Korean territory (top) through binoculars at an observation post, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Goseong, about 330 km (205 miles) northeast of Seoul, May 19, 2013. 
 
 SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast on Sunday, a day after launching three of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers. 
 
 Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions have raised concerns about the region's security. 
 
 "North Korea fired a short-range missile as it did yesterday into its east sea in the afternoon, " South Korea's news agency Yonhap reported, citing a military official. 
 
 A South Korean defense ministry official confirmed the Yonhap report, but did not provide any details. 
 
 U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about North Korea's launch of short-range missiles, urging Pyonyang to refrain from further launches and return to stalled nuclear talks with world powers. 
 
 Ban, who spoke to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti during a visit to Moscow, called Saturday's launch a "provocative action". 
 
 Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month, having run high for several weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February. 
 
 The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States. 
 
 South Korea's Unification Ministry criticized the missile tests as deplorable and urged the North to lower tensions and hold talks over a suspended inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong. 
 
 South Korea pulled out all of its workers from the industrial zone early this month after North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers as tensions mounted. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in MOSCOW; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) ||||| (CNN) North Korea's launch of a missile over Japan was a prelude to more military operations directed at the American territory of Guam, North Korean state media warned Wednesday. 
 
 The country's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported leader Kim Jong Un presided over the dawn launch Tuesday of the "ultra-modern rocket system," the first missile ever fired from the capital Pyongyang. 
 
 North Korean officials told CNN in Pyongyang that Kim was "very satisfied with the performance of the missile." 
 
 The intermediate-range missile, identified by the North Koreans as the Hwasong-12, flew over Japan, further fueling tensions between North Korea and the United States and its allies, Japan and South Korea. 
 
 Early Wednesday, the US conducted a test intercept of a medium range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii, according to a statement from the US Missile Defense Agency. 
 
 A US official told CNN the test was planned for a long time, before North Korea's launch. 
 
 A photo released by North Korea state media appearing the show the launch of a missile which flew from North Korea over Japan on August 29. 
 
 The North Korean launch was "the first step of the military operation of the (North Korean military) in the Pacific and a meaningful prelude to containing Guam," state media said. 
 
 Guam governor's office said in a statement there is no change in the island's threat level. 
 
 "We knew, based on North Korea events in previous years, that with the joint exercise between the US, South Korea, and its Allies, we can expect rhetoric and activity in North Korea," said George Charfauros, Guam homeland security adviser. 
 
 South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe both now believe "pressure on North Korea should be raised to its limit so that North Korea will voluntarily come to the table for dialogue," South Korean presidential spokesman Park Su-hyun said in a statement Wednesday. 
 
 The two also agreed that the United Nations Security Council should enact more detailed and effective sanctions against North Korea. A new round of sanctions against Pyongyang were unanimously approved by the Security Council earlier this month. 
 
 Abe and US President Donald Trump spoke on the phone late Wednesday Japan time, Abe told reporters. 
 
 "I cannot tell you about our forthcoming response to North Korea, but we have just completely agreed on it," Abe said. 
 
 Guam back in the crosshairs 
 
 Guam has long been a focal point of North Korea's anger against the US and is often a target of North Korean saber-rattling. 
 
 It was threatened specifically by North Korea in 2013 and again earlier this month, following a fiery exchange of threats and insults between Trump and the North Korean regime. 
 
 The small island in the Western Pacific is the closest US territory to North Korea and hosts two important US military installations. 
 
 One is Andersen Air Force Base, from which the US has been staging B-1 bomber flights over the Korean Peninsula, often in response to North Korea's missile tests. 
 
 The US flew bombers over North Korea following Pyongyang's two successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. 
 
 Following Wednesday's missile interception test, MDA Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves said the US "will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves." 
 
 A medium-range ballistic missile target is launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. 
 
 'All options on the table' 
 
 Tuesday's missile was fired just before 6 a.m. Japan time (Monday 5 p.m. ET). The launch set off emergency sirens in northern Japan, triggering text messages that warned residents to seek cover. 
 
 "The launch occurred in the vicinity of Sunan Air Base, North Korea and flew east ... The ballistic missile overflew the territory of northern Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean approximately 500 nautical miles east of Japan," a statement from the Pentagon said. 
 
 It was the fourth missile North Korea fired in four days -- Pyongyang tested three short-range ballistic missiles, one of which failed, from Kangwon province that landed in water off the Korean Peninsula. 
 
 Kim Jong Un's regime regularly fires missiles into the sea between its own territory and Japan, however this is the first North Korean ballistic missile to ever fly over the country. 
 
 Though there is a political aspect to these launches, as much the international community sees them as a provocation North Korea conducts them in order to perfect its missile technology. 
 
 Trump reacts 
 
 The launch drew a strong rebuke from President Trump, who again warned that " all options are on the table." 
 
 "The world has received North Korea's latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior," he said Tuesday. 
 
 "Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table." 
 
 The global community also swiftly condemned the launch as a violation of international law. 
 
 The United Nations Security Council demanded North Korea stop further missile launches, strongly condemning the country's "outrageous actions." 
 
 North Korea is "deliberately undermining regional peace and stability," causing grave concerns around the world, Egyptian Ambassador and current Security Council President Abdellatif Aboulatta said in a prepared statement, agreed to by all 15 Council members. 
 
 Japanese Prime Minister Abe called the launch "the most serious and grave threat ever" against the country. 
 
 South Korea responded by conducting a bombing drill at 9:30 a.m. local time to test its "capability to destroy the North Korean leadership" in cases of emergency, an official with the country's Defense Ministry told CNN. 
 
 An undated photo appears to show North Korean leader Kim Jong Un overseeing a missile launch, likely to be the one launched by North Korea on August 29. 
 
 Retaliation for drills 
 
 North Korea state media gave more details about the motivation for the launch Wednesday, noting that it came on the 107th anniversary of the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1907. 
 
 It said it sent a strong message amid ongoing joint US-South Korean military drills in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. 
 
 Washington and Seoul say are defensive in nature but Pyongyang believes are preparation for an eventual invasion. 
 
 Kim praised the crew's "smart and accurate movement" and said the drill "would offer them an opportunity for gaining a good experience in their rocket operation for an actual war," according to KCNA.
– Just in case anybody missed the three short-range missiles North Korea fired off into the sea yesterday, Pyongyang launched a fourth missile in the same area today, reports CNN. That flies in the face of Western calls to cool it already, notes Reuters, after UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced concern, calling yesterday's launches a "provocative action." Saber-rattling or no, the region is still decidedly calmer than last month, a Seoul-based journalist says. "It's really simply because it's North Korea doing this that it raises concerns," he said. "The North Koreans have significantly de-escalated their bellicosity and their rhetoric since the end of April." Seoul, which confirmed the launch today, "will not be strongly condemnatory of this test because right now they are very, very keen to get the North Koreans to the negotiating table."