South Korea Missile Test Meant as 'Deterrence' for North Korea, President Moon Says

South Korea conducted its first submarine-launched ballistic missile test Wednesday as President Moon Jae-in and other country officials watched, the presidential office announced. The test, carried out with a domestically-built missile that the presidential office said successfully met its target, would act as "a sure deterrence against North Korean provocation," Moon said.

South Korea's test came hours after its northern counterpart conducted its own missile trial, the Associated Press reported. North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles Wednesday that traveled 500 miles before landing within Japan's exclusive economic zone in the sea, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said.

While the missiles did not land in Japan's territorial waters, a North Korean missile had not landed inside the area since October 2019, the AP reported. The dueling weapons demonstrations between the North and South, two days after the North announced it carried out its first weapons test in six months with a new cruise missile, have the potential to worsen tensions between the two countries amid suspended talks of halting the North's nuclear program.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years — and in the meantime, tensions have been rising on the Korean Peninsula.

"North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesn't accept the North's demands," said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate following the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that it's too soft on the North.

The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches "threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous."

The White House did not have an immediate reaction to the dueling weapons tests between the Koreas.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test "highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Korea's) illicit weapons program" though it said it didn't pose an immediate threat to the U.S.

The South Korean test will likely infuriate the North, which has often accused its rival of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks between the divided countries.

The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesn't impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, like Wednesday's.

Wednesday's tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

It's unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesday's tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russia's Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defense systems.

The international community is bent on getting the North to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea have stalled since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump's administration rejected the North's demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un's government has so far rejected the Biden administration's overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls "hostile" policies first. But the North has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.