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 (CNN) -- North Korea fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, according to South Korea's semiofficial news agency Yonhap, citing a South Korean military official. 
 
 On Saturday, North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the sea, also known as the East Sea, off the Korean Peninsula's east coast, Yonhap reported. 
 
 The missiles on Saturday were fired in a northeasterly direction, away from South Korean waters, the ministry said. 
 
 South Korea has beefed up monitoring on North Korea and is maintaining a high level of readiness to deal with any risky developments, the ministry added, according to Yonhap. 
 
 According to the Arms Control Association, a U.S.-based organization, short-range guided missiles are generally classified as those traveling less than 1,000 kilometers (about 620 miles). 
 
 Tensions in the region have eased since a period last month that included near daily North Korean threats of war. 
 
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 U.S. and South Korean officials feared at that time that Kim Jong Un's regime was planning to carry out a test launch of longer-range ballistic missiles, believed to be Musudans. The South Korean government says they have a maximum range of 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles). 
 
 Andrew Salmon, a journalist and author based in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said North Korea's reported launch of short-range missiles Saturday should not cause the same degree of concern as the launch of a satellite or medium-range Musudan rocket. 
 
 "It's a short-range tactical weapon. If any other country launched this kind of weapon, it's a routine test, nobody would be too worried. It's really simply because it's North Korea doing this that it raises concerns," he said. 
 
 The situation is much less tense in the region than it was last month, Salmon said. 
 
 "The North Koreans have significantly de-escalated their bellicosity and their rhetoric since the end of April," he said. "The South Korean government, I suspect, will not be strongly condemnatory of this test because right now they are very, very keen to get the North Koreans to the negotiating table." 
 
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 The recent tensions flared after the North's long-range rocket launch in December and underground nuclear test in February, both of which were widely condemned. 
 
 Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric intensified in March as the U.N. Security Council voted to tighten sanctions on the regime following the nuclear test. 
 
 Annual U.S.-South Korean military drills in South Korea also fueled the North's anger, especially when the United States carried out displays of strength that included nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers. 
 
 North Korea is demanding recognition as a nuclear power, something the United States refuses to accept. 
 
 Last month's crisis resulted in the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. 
 
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 CNN's Jethro Mullen contributed to this report. ||||| 1 of 4. South Koreans look at the North Korean territory (top) through binoculars at an observation post, just south of the demilitarised zone separating the two Koreas, in Goseong, about 330 km (205 miles) northeast of Seoul, May 19, 2013. 
 
 SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast on Sunday, a day after launching three of these missiles, a South Korean news agency said, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers. 
 
 Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions have raised concerns about the region's security. 
 
 "North Korea fired a short-range missile as it did yesterday into its east sea in the afternoon, " South Korea's news agency Yonhap reported, citing a military official. 
 
 A South Korean defense ministry official confirmed the Yonhap report, but did not provide any details. 
 
 U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about North Korea's launch of short-range missiles, urging Pyonyang to refrain from further launches and return to stalled nuclear talks with world powers. 
 
 Ban, who spoke to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti during a visit to Moscow, called Saturday's launch a "provocative action". 
 
 Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month, having run high for several weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February. 
 
 The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States. 
 
 South Korea's Unification Ministry criticized the missile tests as deplorable and urged the North to lower tensions and hold talks over a suspended inter-Korean industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong. 
 
 South Korea pulled out all of its workers from the industrial zone early this month after North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers as tensions mounted. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in MOSCOW; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
– Just in case anybody missed the three short-range missiles North Korea fired off into the sea yesterday, Pyongyang launched a fourth missile in the same area today, reports CNN. That flies in the face of Western calls to cool it already, notes Reuters, after UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced concern, calling yesterday's launches a "provocative action." Saber-rattling or no, the region is still decidedly calmer than last month, a Seoul-based journalist says. "It's really simply because it's North Korea doing this that it raises concerns," he said. "The North Koreans have significantly de-escalated their bellicosity and their rhetoric since the end of April." Seoul, which confirmed the launch today, "will not be strongly condemnatory of this test because right now they are very, very keen to get the North Koreans to the negotiating table."