President Moon Jae-in / Yonhap

President Moon Jae-in called for North Korea to make efforts for dialogue in a more earnest manner Wednesday, after Pyongyang launched a suspected ballistic missile into the sea in its first show of force this year.

"This morning, North Korea test-fired an unidentified short-range projectile," Moon told a groundbreaking ceremony for a railway at an inter-Korean border town. "Because of this, there are concerns that tensions could rise and the stalemate in inter-Korean relations could further deepen."