North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the North Korean army’s strike drill at the country’s western and “forefront” regions which was carried out on Thursday, Reuters reported, citing the state news agency KCNA.

Earlier, South Korea said that North Korea had fired an unidentified projectile.

The US Defense Department said on Thursday that the launches by North Korea consisted of multiple ballistic missiles that flew in excess of 300 km (185 miles) and landed in the ocean.

KCNA did not specify what was fired.

Saying “the genuine peace and security of the country are guaranteed only by the strong physical force capable of defending its sovereignty,” Kim Jong Un ordered the further increase of the North Korean army’s strike ability “in the forefront area and on the western front,” KCNA said without elaborating.

The test comes a week after North Korea launched a number of rockets and at least one short range missile from its east coast into the ocean.

In April, North Korean state media reported that the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, had supervised the test-firing of a new tactical weapon with a "powerful warhead," hailing what it called a contribution of "very weighty significance" to its arsenal.

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said afterward that the North Korean weapons test announced was not of a ballistic missile.