• North Korea said that the ballistic missile it tested this week could be rapidly launched and could strike with great precision. It is the latest in a series of advances in missile technology claimed by Pyongyang.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said it had intercepted a mock intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday afternoon in the skies over the Pacific Ocean, marking the first successful test of whether the U.S. Defense Department could shoot down a warhead from North Korea.

Separately, the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, ordered an investigation into why he was not informed that four additional launchers for Thaad, a contentious American missile-defense battery, had been brought into his country.