South Korea's Air Force conducted a rare training mobilizing its F-35A stealth fighters to demonstrate its military capacity after North Korea's test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Seoul's Defense Ministry said on Friday that Defense Minister Suh Wook oversaw an "elephant walk" formation training earlier on Friday at an unspecified air base.

In the exercise, fully armed military aircraft taxi in close formation right before takeoff, a method often used in emergencies that need a lot of aircraft to take off at once.

Suh was on site supervising and monitoring the drill, which aimed to verify South Korea's military readiness in light of the recent series of provocations by the North, including its test-launch of a new ICBM the previous day.

The exercise marked the first major show of military might under the Moon Jae-in administration.