Tests of short-range missiles by North Korea are fairly routine. The last such tests were reported in March.

Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula since the North’s launching of a three-stage rocket in December and its third nuclear test in February. The United Nations Security Council responded by tightening sanctions against the North, which drastically escalated its usual bellicose rhetoric, threatening nuclear strikes.

Officials in the region have been watching for North Korean missile tests since South Korea detected mobile launch vehicles deployed on the North’s east coast early last month. The vehicles carried intermediate-range missiles known as Musudan, which have never been tested and are believed to be the closest the North has to a missile capable of striking American bases on the Pacific island of Guam, as the North has threatened to do.

The missiles launched on Saturday did not include a Musudan, officials here said.