President Moon Jae-office's said in a statement that it observed a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test on Wednesday afternoon.

The missile launched from a submarine of the 3,000-ton class, flew a predetermined distance before striking a predetermined target.

The announcement came after ROK detected two North Korean ballistic missile launches earlier Wednesday.

North Korea launched two ballistic missiles toward the sea in defiance of United Nations resolutions, indicating that the country is pressing ahead with its arms build-up plans while nuclear diplomacy with the US remains stalled.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Republic of Korea, the missiles were launched from central North Korea and flew approximately 800 kilometres (497 miles) at the apogee of 60 kilometres (37 miles) before landing waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The military stated that intelligence agencies in the Republic of Korea and the United States are examining additional details about the launches.

While the launches demonstrated North Korea's illicit weapons program's destabilising effect, the US Indo-Pacific Command stated that they did not pose an immediate threat to "US personnel or territory, or our allies."

The latest launches came two days after North Korea announced that it conducted two successful tests of a newly developed cruise missile over the weekend. North Korea's state media referred to the missile as a "strategic weapon of great significance," implying that it was developed with the intention of carrying nuclear weapons. According to North Korean reports, the missile demonstrated the ability to hit targets 1,500 kilometres (930 miles) away, putting all of Japan and US military installations within striking distance.