North Korea launched two apparent short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday evening, Japan¡¯s defense minister said, just hours after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul to condemn Pyongyang¡¯s ¡°provocative nuclear rhetoric.¡±

The latest launches came a day after it fired two short-range weapons on Wednesday and one missile on Sunday, making for five tests over a span of five days.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada slammed the North¡¯s ¡°very high frequency¡± of missile tests this year, calling them ¡°absolutely unacceptable,¡± and labeling them a ¡°threat to the peace and security of our country, the region and the international community.¡±

Hamada said both missiles had hit a maximum altitude of around 50 kilometers and traveled about 300 km. Both appeared to have splashed down in the Sea of Japan, outside Japan¡¯s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from its coast.

South Korea¡¯s military also confirmed the launches of two short-range ballistic missiles, saying they had been fired from the Sunchon area of North Korea.

Earlier Thursday, Harris visited the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, highlighting what she called her country¡¯s ¡°ironclad¡± commitment to protecting ally South Korea.

The latest missile tests came as the U.S. and South Korea wrapped up joint naval exercises involving the Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier on Thursday and were set to hold trilateral anti-submarine drills with Japan on Friday.

Sunday¡¯s missile launch, which kicked off the spate of tests, was the isolated country¡¯s its first major weapons test since early June, when it fired an unprecedented eight ballistic missiles from multiple locations.

On Wednesday, South Korea¡¯s spy agency said that the North has readied an underground tunnel at its Punggye-ri test site, and that it could conduct its seventh nuclear test sometime between Oct. 16 and Nov. 7, the Yonhap news agency reported. Such a time frame would position any test between a rare congress of China¡¯s Communist Party and November¡¯s U.S. midterm congressional elections.

Last week, media reports said that South Korea¡¯s military had detected signs that the North could also be preparing to test a submarine-launched ballistic missile, after an analysis of satellite imagery spotted unusual movements in the port city of Sinpo.