South Korea and the United States today conducted joint ballistic missile exercises a day after North Korea declared a successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), China's Xinhua news agency reported.

South Korea's joint chiefs of staff said in a statement that the missile units of South Korea and the US carried out joint ballistic missile drills in the East Sea at 7am local time (2200 GMT on Tuesday) in response to North Korea's repeated ballistic missile provocations.

The joint exercises mobilised the South Korean military's Hyunmoo-II ballistic missiles and the eighth US Army's ATACMS ground-to-ground missiles to show their combined capability in emergency situations, the statement said.

The joint missile drills followed North Korea's claim on Tuesday that it successfully test-fired a new type of ICBM, called Hwasong-14, which flew about 930km and was lofted as high as some 2,800km.

The joint drills were conducted as South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed it to US President Donald Trump, Yoon Young-chan, Moon's senior press secretary, told reporters.

President Moon said it would be necessary to clearly show South Korea-US combined missile preparedness to North Korea as just announcing a statement was not enough.

- Bernama