South Korea's military said that North Korea launched a ballistic missile at its eastern waters on Friday, a day after the North restarted its testing activities in what seemed to be a protest against US efforts to strengthen its alliances with South Korea and Japan, news agency Associated Press (AP) reported.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff for the South stated in a statement that the launch took place on Friday but did not provide any information, such as how far the missile travelled.
The launch is the most recent of many missile tests that North Korea has conducted. However, the nation had stopped launching weapons for nearly a week prior to Thursday's ballistic missile launch.
The first missile fired on November 3 seemed to have failed, a South Korean official source informed CNN at the time. This is the second suspected ICBM test launch this month.
A CNN tally shows that North Korea has conducted missile launches 34 times this year. Both ballistic and cruise missiles are counted in the total.
Choe Son Hui, the foreign minister of the North, warned to launch "fiercer" military retaliation before to Thursday's launch in reaction to the US increasing its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan, AP reported.
Choe was alluding to the recent trilateral summit held by US President Joe Biden with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan on the margins of a regional conference in Cambodia.
The three presidents agreed to cooperate to increase deterrence and harshly denounced North Korea's most recent missile launches in their joint statement. Biden emphasised that the US will protect South Korea and Japan using all of its resources, including its nuclear arsenal.
The US "will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret," Choe added, without elaborating on the possible actions North Korea may take.
(With Inputs From Agencies)