N KOREA FIRES MISSILE HOURS AFTER WARNING OF ‘FIERCER’ RESPONSE

SEOUL: North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday, Seoul’s military said, the latest in a record blitz of launches as Pyongyang warned of a “fiercer” military response to the US and its allies.

Washington has been seeking to boost regional security cooperation and ramp up joint military drills in response to increasing provocations from the nuclear-armed North, which views all such moves as evidence of US aggression.

US President Joe Biden discussed North Korea’s recent missile tests with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping earlier this week, and also spoke with leaders from Tokyo and Seoul, as fears grow that the reclusive regime will soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.

Washington’s moves to bolster its “extended deterrence” and stage joint exercises with regional security allies are “foolish acts”, North Korea’s minister of foreign affairs, Choe Sonhui, said on Thursday in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

The more Washington boosts security cooperation with Tokyo and Seoul, “the fiercer the DPRK’s military counteraction will be”, Choe said, referring to the North by its official name of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military had “detected around 10:48am local time one short-range ballistic missile fired from the Wonsan area in Kangwon province”.