South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide further details in its statement.

Japan's coastguard and prime minister's office said the North had fired a suspected ballistic missile, adding they were gathering more information.

North Korea's latest attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit ended in a mid-air explosion on Monday, Pyongyang said, after Seoul and Tokyo had criticised the planned launch.

Japanese broadcaster NHK ran footage of what appeared to be a flaming projectile in the night sky, which then exploded into a fireball, saying it had filmed it from northeast China at the same time as the attempted launch.

Putting a reconnaissance satellite into orbit has long been a top priority for Kim Jong Un's regime, and it claimed to have succeeded in November, after two failed attempts last year.