Anchor: North Korea fired two short-range cruise missiles into the West Sea on Sunday, in its first missile launch in eleven months and since the Biden administration took office in January. Seoul and Washington noted that since the UN Security Council(UNSC) only bans ballistic missile launches, the North did not violate UNSC resolutions.
Kim Bum-soo has more.

Report: South Korean and U.S. authorities admitted that North Korea fired two short-range missiles towards China into the West Sea Sunday morning.

An official at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) on Wednesday confirmed the launch after a Washington Post report that said the missile test represents “Kim Jong-un’s first challenge to U.S. President Joe Biden.”

South Korean officials noted that the weapons in question were not ballistic missiles, which are banned under the UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea, but short-range cruise missiles.  

President Biden also shrugged off the launch, calling it “business as usual.“

[Sound bite: US President Joe Biden]
(Reporter: Do you feel that's a real provocation by North Korea?)
"No. According to the Defense Department, it's business as usual. There's no new, there's no new wrinkle in what they did."

But the launch came after the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a statement, threatening Seoul and Washington for their joint military drills.

After the annual exercise, tensions rose further as U.S. secretaries of state and defense met their counterparts in Japan and then in South Korea, and coordinated their plans on North Korea.

As the Biden administration is getting close to completing its review of North Korea policies, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan is scheduled to hold a meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts.

Unlike its active media engagement following the North’s previous cruise and other missile launches, Seoul at this critical juncture decided not to disclose the maneuver.

The military refused to disclose further details but analysts did not rule out the possibility that the launch was to test the new mid-range cruise missiles that Kim mentioned during a key ruling party meeting in January.

During that meeting, Kim called the cruise missile and other new weapons as "ultra-modern tactical nuclear weapons" while calling for the development of a nuclear submarine.

It is unclear whether the North can mount warheads on its tactical missiles. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.