(CNN) North Korea's firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile over the weekend sparked sharp condemnation and concern from officials around the globe.
The missile was fired off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula at 6:30 p.m. Saturday (5:30 a.m. ET), South Korean officials said.
It appears to have flown about 30 kilometers (about 19 miles), well short of the 300 kilometers (roughly 186 miles) that would be considered a successful test, according to South Korean officials.
North Korean state news agency KCNA claimed that the launch was successful and said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "guided on the spot the underwater test-fire of strategic submarine ballistic missile."
"At the observation post he was briefed on the plan for the test-fire and gave an order for it," KCNA reported.
North Korea: U.S. 'hostile'
The North claims that U.S. military action on the Korean peninsula justifies its aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.
Ri Jong Ryul, a former North Korean ambassador and current deputy-director general of the Institute of International Studies in Pyongyang, said the North's tests were "fair self-defensive measures" in the face of a U.S. "nuclear threat and blackmail."
He pointed to Key Resolve, the ongoing joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, as an example of what he termed a "hostile policy" toward North Korea by the United States.
"As long as the U.S. doesn't cancel its nuclear war exercise and its hostile policy against us, we will continue powerfully advancing with our nuclear activity without resting a day," he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday that the United States won't talk with North Korea about changing the U.S. approach to military exercises in the region until North Korea shows it's serious about denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
"That's not something that happens based on a press release in the wake of a series of provocative behaviors," Obama said.
"They'll have to do better than that, and until they do, we'll emphasize our work with (South Korea) and Japan and our missile defense mechanisms to ensure we're keeping the American people safe and keeping our allies safe."
'Provocative'
Launching a missile from a submarine has always been a military priority for North Korea, CNN's Barbara Starr reports, and if this test was successful, it would be a military victory for Pyongyang.
After previous launch attempts by Pyongyang failed, this one seems to have gone much better, one U.S. official noted.
"North Korea's sub launch capability has gone from a joke to something very serious," this official said. "The U.S. is watching this very closely."
Asked whether the test was successful, another U.S. official told CNN, "essentially yes."
Obama said that the United States is still analyzing what happened.
"What is clear," he said, "is that North Korea continues to engage in continuous provocative behavior. They have been actively pursuing an nuclear program, an ability to launch nuclear weapon.
"Although more often than not they fail in these tests, they gain knowledge each time they engage in these tests. And we take it very seriously."
Take a 3D tour of North Korea
North Korea's verbal volleys
North Korea has a history of using creative language to express loathing for its enemies. Here are some of the regime's more colorful threats against the West.
March 2016: North Korea warned it would make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to
joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Pyongyang issued a long statement promising that "time will prove how the crime-woven history of the U.S. imperialists who have grown corpulent through aggression and war will come to an end and how the Park Geun Hye group's disgraceful remaining days will meet a miserable doom as it is keen on the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north."
March 2016: Following the imposition of strict U.N. sanctions, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country's "nuclear warheads need to be ready for use at any time," the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported.
January 2016: North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a thermonuclear weapon, justifying its right to have an H-bomb on the grounds of "self defense."
September 2015: In a statement, North Korea said its nuclear arsenal was ready for use "at any time."
August 2015: As forces from the U.S. and South Korea took part in joint military drills. North Korea's state media referred to the exercises, which started on August 17, as "madcap" and issued a stern warning to America: "If the U.S. ignites a war in the end, far from drawing a lesson taught by its bitter defeat in the history, the DPRK will bring an irrevocable disaster and disgrace to it."
August 2015: On August 23, as North Korean negotiators were meeting with their South Korean counterparts over current tensions, a KCTV presenter appeared on air repeating North Korea's ambitions to "destroy the warmongering South Korean puppet military."
December 2014: The
FBI said it suspected North Korea was behind a hack of Sony Entertainment, which led executives to initially cancel the theatrical release of "The Interview." The film was a comedy about an American television personality who the CIA asks to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea threatened "merciless" action against the U.S. if the film was released, accusing the U.S. of retaliating for the hack by shutting down North Korea's Internet access. North Korea's National Defense Commission
also called U.S. President Barack Obama "reckless" and a "monkey."
July 2014: North Korea threatens to hit the White House and Pentagon with nuclear weapons. American "imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival," North Korean officials reportedly said after the country accused the U.S. of increasing hostilities on the border with South Korea. "Our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon -- the sources of all evil," North Korean Gen. Hwang Pyong-So said,
according to The Telegraph.
March 2013: Angered by tougher U.N. sanctions and joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea, the
Supreme Command of North Korea's military vowed to put "on highest alert" the country's "rocket units" that are assigned to strike "U.S. imperialist aggressor troops in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zone in the Pacific." Whether Pyongyang has the will to back up such doomsday talk is a perplexing question,
but there is evidence that its know-how -- in terms of uranium enrichment, nuclear testing and missile technology -- is progressing.
February 2013: In a message to the United States and South Korea,
North Korea vowed "miserable destruction" if "your side ignites a war of aggression by staging reckless joint military exercises."
June 2012: Once again, North Korea
vowed to be "merciless" in its promised attack on the United States, this time threatening a "sacred war" as it aimed artillery at South Korean media groups. North Korea
was mad that South Korean journalists had criticized Pyongyang children's festivals meant to foster allegiance to the Kim family.
April 2012: North Korea's state-run news agency
reported that "the moment of explosion is approaching fast" and promised "merciless" strikes against the United States. "The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation," it said. Later that month, Pyongyang
launched a long-range rocket that broke apart and fell into the sea. The launch came during preparations for a grand party that celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea.
November 2011: North Korea's
military threatened to turn the capital of South Korea into a "sea of fire," according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
2009: After the U.S. pledge to give nuclear defense to South Korea,
Pyongyang threatened a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation."
2002: U.S. President George W. Bush includes North Korea in an "axis of evil" with Iran and Iraq, which North Korea brushes off as a "little short of a declaration of war." North Korea reportedly
threatened to "wipe out the aggressors." That year, North Korea also threatened to
kick out international inspectors who were in the country to monitor its compliance with global nuclear nonproliferation agreements.
International condemnation
The United States was among a chorus of countries denouncing the launch, noting that it violated multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The Council itself strongly condemned the incident in a statement Sunday.
North Korea's "development and testing of new ballistic missile capabilities, even if launches are failures, is clearly prohibited by these resolutions," the statement said.
South Korea condemned the act, releasing a statement urging its neighbor to "refrain from additional provocations.
"This act was a serious threat against the security, against not just Korea and northeast Asia, but the world."
France called for further sanctions against the reclusive nation. A statement by the French foreign ministry said that the North Korean nuclear program "constitutes a serious threat to regional and international security."
Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test in January. It said it succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear warheads to fit on medium-range ballistic missiles, which U.S. intelligence analysts say is probably true.
North Korea requests meeting with U.N. Security Council
Unseen in Pyongyang
London-based amateur photographer Michal Huniewicz recently visited North Korea as a tourist. He snapped dozens of images during his trip -- some permitted, others not. Huniewicz took this photo from the window of a train as he pulled into Pyongyang from Dandong. "It looked like something you would see in a theater," he says. "It's a bit too perfect."
Huniewicz says this is just one of two photos in which he was able to capture a candid smile from local residents.
North Koreans head down to the Pyongyang Metro. It's 100 meters underground thus riding the escalator down to the station takes a couple of minutes.
"Who's American here?" the museum guide asks. "Grab the flowers, go to the monument, bow, and lay the flowers there." Huniewicz says North Koreans told him they single-handedly defeated the U.S. in the Korean War.
A woman sells postcards, stamps and posters, many featuring themes focused on defeating the U.S. and destroying the White House. Huniewicz says he did send one such postcard from North Korea to the U.S. and it arrived with no problems.
These settlements, captured from a speeding van, appear to be slums outside of Pyongyang, according to Huniewicz. He speculates that the tourist transport vans slow down when passing what the authorities are proud of showing and speed past less desirable sights.
This may look like an ordinary scene in any country, Huniewicz explains, but in North Korea, he feels it challenges a local song about no mother's love being greater than that of the Communist Party.
Riding the Pyongyang Metro. The underground network has two lines and 17 stations.
This scene was captured during a dance held to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Liberation from Japan at Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung Square.
Women in traditional Korean dress head to the dance. Though much of North Korea is without electricity, the portraits of the supreme leaders are illuminated brightly.
The Pyongyang circus, Huniewicz says, is genuinely impressive.
Huniewicz makes it clear that all his pictures show North Korea through his eyes.
Huniewicz doesn't think his pictures capture anything highly controversial.
North Korea's apartments remind Huniewicz of the ones he saw in Eastern Europe, the photographer tells CNN.
South Korean military on high alert
Ballistic missiles are missiles fired in an arc toward their targets.
CNN's Paula Hancocks said it was not yet known whether the latest North Korean test was a success. But she said the ability to launch ballistic missiles from submarines makes possible launch points far more difficult to detect.
The South Korean military was on high alert after the test, Hancocks said.
CNN's K.J. Kwon, Kevin Liptak, Barbara Starr, Catherine E. Shoichet and Richard Roth, and journalist Kim Jung-Eun, contributed to this report.