N.Korea Fires Missiles After Threatening 'Counteraction'

North Korea fired another missile into the East Sea on Friday morning. The Joint Chiefs of Staff here said the North launched the rocket at 10:17 a.m. and it is presumed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The launch came hard on the heels of a short-range ballistic missile lobbed into the East Sea the previous day and condemnation of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan for agreeing earlier this week to bolster extended nuclear deterrence against the North. 

"The keener the U.S. is on the 'bolstered offer of extended deterrence' to its allies and the more they intensify provocative and bluffing military activities on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, the fiercer [North Korea's] military counteraction will be," North Korean Foreign Minister said in a statement, according to the regime's official Korean Central News Agency. 

The JCS said that Thursday's missile was a new solid-propellant rocket, flew about 240 km at a speed of Mach 4 and reached an altitude of some 47 km. 

It dropped on an uninhabited island called Alsom off North Hamgyong Province. Immediately afterwards, South Korea and the U.S. held a meeting and shared relevant information. 

The missile was fired only an hour and 40 minutes after North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui issued her first public statement since she took up the post in June.