North Korea has fired a missile into the East Sea, US and South Korean officials said.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a statement on the matter: “North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment”.
Pyongyang’s test comes a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the US for a meeting with President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
The summit is expected to touch upon the subject of a nuclear threat from North Korea.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the latest missile launch a “reckless provocation” and Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the country lodged a strong protest over the issue.
The US has been pushing for China to be more assertive in its efforts to pressure North Korea into stopping its nuclear programme and missile testing, and Mr Trump warned that “if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will”.
The launch of objects using ballistic missile technology is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Given his strong words, people are even more confused by the State Department’s response that the US has “spoken enough” about the issue.
Some people have been criticising the statement's brevity, calling it "generic and non-responsive".
The missile launch also follows annual military drills between the US and South Korea, which North Korea sees as a rehearsal for a potential invasion of their territory.
Earlier in March North Korea fired four ballistic missiles that flew approximately 1,000km (620 miles), and three of them landed in waters that Japan claims as its exclusive military zone.
