This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, May 31, shows the North staging a firing drill involving 600 mm super-large multiple rocket launchers the previous day, guided by leader Kim Jong-un. Yonhap

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has supervised an artillery firing drill involving 600 mm super-large multiple rocket launchers, state media reported Friday, a day after South Korea said the North fired about 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea.

Kim directly gave an order to organize the "power demonstration firing" that took place Thursday in response to the South Korean Army's show of force against North Korea's legitimate exercise of its sovereign rights, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The drill was aimed at showing North Korea's "corresponding will not to hesitate to carry out a preemptive attack by invoking the right to self-defense at any time when the enemies attempt to use military force against it," the report said.

The South Korean military said Thursday it detected the North's launch of around 10 short-range ballistic missiles from Pyongyang's Sunan area, adding they flew about 350 kilometers before falling into the East Sea. It was unusual for Pyongyang to fire a salvo of some 10 missiles at one time.

The North's super-large multiple rocket launch system is classified as a short-range missile that could put the entire South Korean territory within range. Pyongyang has claimed a tactical nuclear warhead could be mounted on such a weapon.

The firing "will serve as an occasion in clearly showing what consequences our rivals will face if they provoke us," Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA.

He stressed North Korea's nuclear forces should be more "thoroughly" prepared in a bid to promptly and correctly carry out a mission of deterring a war.

Photos carried by state media showed 18 transporter erector launchers (TELs) lining up to fire rocket artillery.

The provocation came a day after North Korea sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and manure into the South earlier this week in a "tit-for-tat" action against Seoul activists' campaign of sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

North Korea fired a rocket carrying a military spy satellite Monday, but its launch attempt ended in failure as the rocket exploded shortly after liftoff. The North successfully placed a spy satellite into orbit in November 2023 after two botched attempts in May and August. (Yonhap)