SEOUL: North Korea has tested a new "tactical guided projectile" with a solid-fuel engine, state media said Friday after the nuclear-armed country carried out its first substantive provocation since US President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Pyongyang has a long history of using weapons tests to ramp up tensions, in a carefully calibrated process to try to forward its objectives.

On Thursday it launched two weapons from its east coast, with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga calling them ballistic missiles.

Pyongyang is under multiple international sanctions over its weapons programmes, with UN Security Council resolutions banning it from developing ballistic missiles.

Biden told reporters that UN resolution 1718 "was violated by those particular missiles that were tested".

Pyongyang had been biding its time since the new administration took office, not even officially acknowledging its existence until last week.

The US was "consulting with our partners and allies", Biden said Thursday, warning North Korea that "there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly."

"I'm also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearisation," he added.