Another N. Korea missile fails

US, S. Korea agree to strengthen joint military efforts

North Korea test- fired a missile that failed immediately after launch early Thursday, US and South Korean militaries said, hours after the two countries agreed to step up efforts to counter the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

The missile was believed to be an intermediate- range Musudan and was launched from the western city of Kusong, where North Korea attempted but failed to launch the same type of missile on Saturday, said the US Strategic Command and South Korea’s Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The launch came shortly after the US and South Korea agreed in Washington to bolster military and diplomatic efforts to counter the North’s nuclear and missile programs, which it is pursuing in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

China urged relevant parties not to exacerbate regional tension.

“It is hoped that relevant parties can exercise restraint and avoid provoking each other,” Hua Chunying, spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying in a statement.

“We strongly condemn the North’s continued illegal acts of provocation,” the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Japan condemned the launch and said it would make a formal protest to the North through its embassy in Beijing.

The failed missile launch was the eighth attempt in seven months by the North to launch a weapon with a design range of 3,000 kilometers that can be fired from road mobile launchers, the two militaries said.

North Korea has been pursuing its nuclear and missile programs at an unprecedented pace this year.

In June, North Korea launched a Musudan missile that flew about 400 kilometers, more than half the distance to Japan, a flight that was considered a success by officials and experts in South Korea and the US.

North Korea said on Thursday that it would continue to launch satellites despite its rival South’s objections, in a statement by its space agency carried by official media.

Pyongyang says it has a sovereign right to pursue a space program by launching rockets carrying satellites, most recently in February, although Washington and Seoul worry that such launches are long- range missile tests in disguise.

Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950- 53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the US.