The drill took place at a site 30 minutes from downtown Pyongyang, the influential newspaper Asahi Shimbun quoted sources related to North Korea as saying.

During the drill eight "small-sized missiles" were launched and hit their target some five kilometers (three miles) away, the report said. It did not specify what kind of missiles were fired.

The drill lasted 40 minutes and was observed by government and military cadres as well as model workers and overseas Koreans, the report said.

The country's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il did not attend.

Against wide-spread expectations, North Korea did not showcase any new missiles or military hardware at a mass parade celebrating its national day at Pyongyang's Kim Il-Sung square.

Earlier this year, North Korea test-fired short-range anti-ship missiles into the Sea of Japan as international pressure mounted on the Stalinist state to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

It is also known to have deployed short-range Soviet-developed Scud missiles while developing longer-range ballistic missiles codenamed Rodong and Taepodong.

The North shocked the world by lobbing a Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers over Japan in August 1998, claiming it was a satellite launch.

SPACE.WIRE