Recent missile tests by Kim showed possible advancements in distance and accuracy.
"This launch is seen as an armed protest by the regime to show off the accuracy of its anti-ship missiles to warn the US carrier strike group in the region".
Thursday's launch is the fourth missile test by the North since Moon took office on May 10 pledging to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang.
"However, we don't think this (missile launch) is something we need to protest against", he said. This puts the US state of Alaska within range, and Washington is concerned by what it considers the clear and realistic threat posed by North Korea.
The North's missile tests present a hard challenge to Moon. In 2013, state media said leader Kim had watched a drone attack drill on a simulated South Korean target.
However, the cruise missile firing do not violate U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North, which ban launches using ballistic missile technology.
The launch comes a day after Moon suspended the deployment of a controversial USA missile defense system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, pending an full environmental assessment.
Prior to his election last month, Moon had often expressed his opposition of the THAAD deployment, insisting it required approval by South Korea's parliament.
North Korea confirmed on Friday that its Thursday missile launch was successful and was aimed at testing a new cruise anti-ship missile, the state KCNA news agency reported.
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North Korea says it has tested a new type of cruise missile that is a powerful means of attacking enemy warships, a day after South Korea's military detected projectiles fired from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan.
"Our military has strengthened surveillance and alertness readiness in cases of additional provocation by North Korean military and is maintaining all readiness posture while we are tracking and monitoring related situation", the official said.
The missiles flew about 200 kilometers (124 miles), South Korea's military said.
Moon campaigned in favor of engagement with North Korea but he seems to have modified his stance in the face of ongoing provocations by Pyongyang. North Korea fired several suspected short-range anti-ship missiles Thur.
The North does not have an ICBM that can carry a nuclear warhead, as far as we know.
This put China in line with new United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang after its nuclear test and rocket launch past year.
The United States has recently moved two aircraft carrier strike groups - the Carl Vinson and the Ronald Reagan - near the Korean Peninsula.
"North Korea fired multiple unidentified projectiles, assumed to be surface-to-ship missiles, this morning from the vicinity of Wonsan, Gangwon province", the South's military said.
Moon said after the new launches that his government "won't back off even a single step and make any compromise" on the issue of national security. "I would say we are addressing the threat that we know today", Syring said.
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