It was the first time a ballistic missile had landed near the South's waters since the peninsula was divided, and the most missiles fired by the North in a single day. South Korea issued rare air raid warnings and launched its own missiles in response as tensions spiraled in the region.

The missile landed outside South Korea's territorial waters, but south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed inter-Korean maritime border.

South Korean warplanes fired three air-to-ground missiles into the sea north across the NLL in response, the South's military said. An official said the weapons used included an AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER, which is a United States-made "stand-off" precision attack weapon that can fly for up to 270 km with a 360 kilogram warhead.

The South's launches came after Yoon's office vowed a "swift and firm response" so North Korea "pays the price for provocation".

"North Korea's provocation today was an effective act of territorial encroachment by a missile intruding the NLL for the first time since [the two Koreas'] division," Yoon's office said.

The North Korean weapon was one of three short-range ballistic missiles fired from the North Korean coastal area of Wonsan into the sea, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. The JCS later said as many as 14 other missiles of various types had been fired from North Korea's east and west coasts.

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