South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to maintain maximum pressure and sanctions against North Korea, strongly condemning the communist state's latest missile provocation staged early Wednesday.

The agreement came in a telephone conversation held only hours after Pyongyang fired what was believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, according to Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

"The two leaders strongly condemned North Korea for again launching a long-range ballistic missile despite the international community's repeated warnings and a series of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hyun told a press briefing.

Moon and Trump agreed to continue putting maximum pressure and sanctions against the North in close cooperation with the international community, he added.

The latest missile provocation marked the first of its kind since Sept. 15 when Pyongyang fired an intermediate range missile that flew over Japan.

Earlier, the White House said Moon and Trump discussed the countries' response to the North Korean provocation.

"Both leaders underscored the grave threat that North Korea's latest provocation poses not only to the United States and the Republic of Korea but to the entire world," it said in a statement.

The South Korean president noted the South Korean Army, Navy and Air Force staged a joint exercise immediately after the North Korean missile launch, according to Park.

"(The president) explained his country demonstrated its capability to target the origin of North Korean provocations by striking a target with ground-to-ground, ship-to-ground and air-to-ground missiles," the spokesman said.

The two leaders agreed to hold additional discussions in the near future on ways to deal with North Korean provocations after carefully examining North Korea's intentions and necessary countermeasures, he added. (Yonhap)