South Korea's presidential office said the country conducted its first submarine-launched ballistic missile test. It said the domestically built missile flew from a submarine and hit its designated target while President Moon Jae-in and other top officials looked on.

Moon said improvements in the country's missile capabilities would serve as "a sure deterrence against North Korean provocation."

Earlier Wednesday, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea. Those launches came two days after the North said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first weapons test in six months.