North Korea fires missile, vows 'fiercer' response to US, allies

The latest launch came less than two hours after North Korea's foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, slammed a Sunday trilateral summit of the United States, South Korea and Japan.

 North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Thursday as it warned of "fiercer military responses" to US efforts to boost its security presence in the region with its allies, saying Washington is taking a "gamble it will regret."

North Korea has conducted a record number of such tests this year, and also fired hundreds of artillery shells into the sea more recently as South Korea and the United States staged exercises, some of which involved Japan.