The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) early on Monday fired a short-range Scud missile that flew about 450 km, reported South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, citing Seoul's military.

"[The DPRK] fired an unidentified projectile from the vicinity of Wonsan, Gangwon Province, early this morning," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, adding that the projectile was launched in an eastern direction at around 5:39 a.m. local time.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened a National Security Council meeting on the launch at 7:30 a.m. local time.

The US Pacific Command confirmed in a statement that a six-minute flight of a DPRK short-range ballistic missile was tracked until it landed into the Sea of Japan.

The White House also said it was aware of the launch and that President Donald Trump had been briefed.

Meanwhile, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his country believed this latest missile landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan, adding that Japan strongly protested the DPRK's "repeated provocative actions".

This was Pyongyang's ninth missile test this year and the third in nine days.

The country fired a ballistic missile known as the Pukguksong-2 on May 21 and conducted a KN-06 surface-to-air guided missile test on Saturday.