North Korea Launches Projectiles to Protest New Sanctions

North Korea has fired six short range projectiles into the sea on the country's east coast.

Officials in South Korea say the launches happened shortly after the U.N. Security Council approved the toughest sanctions on Pyongyang in two decades because of its recent nuclear test.

The firings also came shortly after South Korea's National Assembly passed its first legislation on human rights in North Korea.

The North Korean projectiles flew about 60 to 90 miles before landing in the sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Defense officials think the projectiles could be missile artillery or rockets.

North Korean state media earlier warned that the imposition of new sanctions would be a "grave provocation" that shows "extreme" U.S. hostility against the country.

The U.N. sanctions include:

-Mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air.

-A ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to the North.

-The expulsion of North Korean diplomats who engage in "illicit activities."

In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb.

Last month, it put a satellite into orbit with a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others saw as a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

Thursday's firings were seen as a "low-level" response to the U.N. sanctions.

North Korea is unlikely to launch any major provocation until its landmark ruling Workers' Party convention in May, according to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.