North Korea launches projectiles for the fourth time in two weeks

South Korean military officials said North Korea fired another round of projectiles off its east coast Monday, the fourth such launch in less than two weeks, according to the Associated Press.

While South Korean officials did not identify what projectiles were fired, it said they were fired from South Hwanghae Province near the west coast, flying cross-country into the sea.

{mosads}The North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that, in light of planned joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul, North Korea is “compelled to develop, test and deploy the powerful physical means essential for national defense,” according to the AP.

The launches come the week after North Korea conducted two tests for what it said was a new rocket artillery system and two weeks after a short-range ballistic missile launch.

President Trump has dismissed the tests as “standard” and not in violation of an earlier denuclearization agreement.

“Short-range missiles, we never made an agreement on that. I have no problem,” Trump told reporters last week. “We’ll see what happens. But these are short-range missiles, they’re very standard.”

After a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam ended in February without a formal agreement, the two went on to attend a third summit in June in the Demilitarized Zone, but also failed there to reach a final accord.