North Korea has launched two short-range missiles early Wednesday off the east coast of the Korean Peninsulato salute a former North Korean missile expert who died.

Jon Pyong Ho's death was announced shortly as two ballistic Scud-class missiles were fired from a western province in North Korea, soaring around 500 kilometers (310 miles) before crashing into the sea in the northeast.

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Jon was a renowned general of the Korean People's Army (KPA) who turned the KPA into a "powerful and elite revolutionary army equipped with modern and defensive means and converting the DPRK into a satellite producer, launcher, and a nuclear weapons state," the KCNA news agency reported.

Also a famed figure in the Worker's Party of Korea (WPK), Jon died of natural causes at the age of 88. He is best known as the North Korean missile expert sanctioned by the United Nations for contributing to North Korea's nuclear and missile weapons programs.

He was a close adviser to the late Kim Jong Il and worked for more than 40 years in the production and development of North Korean artillery before retiring in 2011.

While still in office, Jon oversaw the progress of the North's long-range ballistic missile programs and was actively involved in the country's first test of a nuclear device about eight years ago.

The latest missile launched by the North marks a continuing defiance of the country to a U.N. prohibition that restricts North Korea from using or acquiring ballistic missile technology that "could be used in its nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile programmes," Reuters reported on Wednesday.

In recent events, the country has conducted a large number of missile test fires during key occurrences including Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to South Korea, which analysts saw as a protest against Xi for being the first Chinese leader to come to the 'South before the North.'

North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un himself will organize a state funeral to be held in Pyongyang to honor Jon's legacy in the country's nuclear and missile programs.

TagsPyongyang, North Korea, missiles