Seoul [South Korea], May 22 (ANI): North Korea fired multiple unidentified cruise missiles, according to a report in South Korean state media on Thursday morning.

The multiple cruise missiles were fired toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea's JCS, the Yonhap news outlet reported.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launches at about 9 am from the Sondok area in South Hamgyong Province, noting that South Korean and US intelligence authorities are conducting a detailed analysis.

Pyongyang had on May 8 fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea as per Yonhap.

Meanwhile, North Korean state-run media reported a major accident at a launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer.

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, termed the mishap a 'criminal act'.

The incident occured at a shipyard in the port of Chongjin, the 5,000-ton destroyer lost balance while on a flatcar, crushing some lower sections and preventing it from leaving the shipway, the official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday, as cited by Yonhap

Kim who was present at the launch said the accident caused by 'absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility' led 'the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment,' KCNA reported.

According to the South Korean military, the destroyer remains partially capsized.

Kim has also ordered the ship be restored before a key party meeting in June

In late April, Kim attended a ceremony for the launch of another new 5,000-ton warship at a shipyard in Nampho on its western coast and lauded the event as a 'breakthrough in modernization' of the country's naval forces.

At the ship's launching event, Kim urged the construction of more destroyers of the Choe Hyon class, along with larger cruisers and various support vessels, next year.

He also reiterated the country's ambition to develop nuclear-powered submarines. In March this year, the North unveiled what appears to be a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, with its leader warning that his country's maritime defense capability will be 'fully' projected 'in any necessary waters without limitation,' Yonhap reported. (ANI)