According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea launched what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles from Pyongyang toward the East Sea on Monday, according to reports.

Two projectiles fired eastward from a location near Pyongyang's Sunan airport, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement Monday. "Our military believes the projectiles are short-range ballistic missiles," the JCS stated in a statement Monday.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the South Korean military "maintains a ready posture in preparation for additional launches while tracking and monitoring associated movements."

The launch on Monday came three days after North Korea fired a pair of KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles from a rail-mobile launcher on Friday afternoon, marking the third such launch in three days.

Pyongyang has conducted four nuclear weapons tests this year. Pyongyang staged three independent launches of ballistic missiles between Jan. 5 and Jan. 14 in short intervals, resulting in the firing of four ballistic missiles.

Given that North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday swiftly repudiated Washington's sanctions designations and warned that the country would be "compelled to take a stronger and clear reaction" if the United States pursued a "confrontational stance at all costs," the country's second consecutive show of force is noteworthy.

A flurry of test launches followed Pyongyang's announcement of the country's strategic direction for the new year on January 1 as a result of the country's fourth plenum, which lasted five days.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un specifically requested the country to substantially strengthen its national defense capabilities "immediately," citing the turbulent security climate on the Korean Peninsula as the primary reason for his request.