North Korea on Sunday fired a short-range missile into the East Sea, a Seoul military official said, a day after firing three short-range guided missiles off the Korean Peninsula's east coast.

North Korea fired the missile Sunday afternoon, the official said on the condition of anonymity, adding that the missile was fired in a northeasterly direction, away from South Korea.

"Following yesterday, North Korea launched one short-range missile into the East Sea this afternoon," the official said.

Short-range missile tests by North Korea are not uncommon.

The North's latest missile launch came as South Korean and U.S. forces remain on high alert amid high tensions that were triggered by the North's nuclear test in late February.

Earlier in the day, Seoul's unification ministry in charge of North Korean affairs condemned the North's Saturday launch of short-range missiles as "provocative," while urging Pyongyang to hold talks over a suspended inter-Korean industrial complex in the North's border city of Gaeseong.

It remains unclear what type of short-range missiles were used on Saturday and Sunday,  but Seoul's military officials said they may be KN-02 surface-to-surface missiles with a range of up to 160 kilometers or rockets of at least 300mm in caliber fired from a multiple rocket launcher. (Yonhap News)