SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw firing drills involving "newly equipped, super-large" multiple rocket launchers, state media said on Tuesday, a day after Seoul said Pyongyang had fired several short-range ballistic missiles.

The United States and South Korea wrapped up one of their major annual joint military exercises last week, prompting angry retorts and live-fire drills from the nuclear-armed North, which condemns all such exercises as rehearsals for invasion.

Seoul's military said on Monday it had detected the launch of "multiple short-range ballistic missiles" by the North, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the South Korean capital for talks.

The super-large multiple rocket launcher, referred to as KN-25 by Seoul and Washington's forces, is a short-range ballistic missile, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

The North has claimed the weapon has the capability to be equipped with a tactical nuclear warhead.

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim guided the drills on Monday that tested the "real war capabilities" of 600-millimeter multiple rocket launchers as he stressed the importance of "war preparations."

The drills also involved simulating an aerial explosion of a shell from the super-large multiple rocket launcher at a predetermined altitude above the target, the state-run outlet added.

Kim said the multiple rocket launcher would help the North "block and suppress the possibility of war with the constant perfect preparedness to collapse the capital of the enemy," the KCNA report said.

During the drills, North Korean artillerymen "demonstrated their excellent crack-shot artillery marksmanship, and prompt and thorough combat readiness," it added.

"Massive shells of super-large multiple rocket launchers, which were fired from the sharp gun barrels like lava, flew to the target with the flame of annihilating the enemy," it said.

State media images showed Kim, wearing his customary black leather jacket, watching the drills with his generals and celebrating their apparent success with a raised fist.

North Korea this month warned that the South and US would pay a "dear price" over their military exercises and later announced that Kim had guided an artillery unit it said was capable of striking Seoul.

Kim last week also oversaw paratroop drills aimed at showing his soldiers' ability to occupy an "enemy region at a stroke," state media reported.

Monday's ballistic missile test was North Korea's second this year, after it launched one tipped with a maneuverable hypersonic warhead on January 14.

So far this year, North Korea has declared the South its "principal enemy," jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and outreach, and threatened war over "even 0.001 mm" of territorial infringement.

Seoul is one of Washington's key regional allies, and the US has stationed about 27,000 American soldiers in the South to help protect it against Pyongyang.

Last week's Seoul-Washington drills included "clearing operations" inside North Korea's "key facilities" in case of an attack by Pyongyang, the South's military said.

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