The South Korean military said that North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles(SRBMs) toward the Yellow Sea on Thursday.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) initially said at around 7:45 p.m. that it detected one missile fired from the North's western port city of Nampo at 6:20 p.m.

An update coming more than two hours after the initial statement said that the JCS is looking into the possibility that the North simultaneously fired multiple SRBMs from the area.

The JCS, which usually discloses the North's missile launches immediately, issued the first statement about 85 minutes after the launch, explaining that the firing was detected in real time but required further analysis as the detection time was too short.

The JCS said the South’s military has raised its monitoring and vigilance levels and is maintaining full defense readiness while cooperating closely with the U.S.

The latest provocation comes ahead of South Korea-U.S. combined springtime “Freedom Shield” military exercise set to kick off next week.