South Korea successfully test-fired a homegrown submarine-launched ballistic missile, the presidential Blue House said on Wednesday.
The test, supervised by President Moon Jae-in, came hours after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea, according to the South's military.
South Korea's test launch was conducted in the afternoon at a test site of the state-run Agency for Defense Development in South Chungcheong Province.
The indigenously developed SLBM was launched underwater from a domestically developed 3,000-ton Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine that was put into commission on August 13.
The missile traveled a planned distance and hit the target precisely, the Blue House said. The submarine is known to have six vertical launch tubes.
The ADD conducted several ground- and water tank-based tests of the SLBM, the defense ministry said in a separate statement.
The SLBM was reportedly codenamed "Hyunmoo 4-4" as it was developed based on the technology of the country's Hyunmoo-2B ballistic missile with a range of about 500 kilometers.
Earlier on Wednesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the South Korean military detected two short-term ballistic missiles, which were launched toward the East Sea from a region in the DPRK's South Pyongan province at 12:34pm and 12:39pm each.
The missiles traveled about 800km at an altitude of around 60km.